Leinster coach Leo Cullen has stuck to his promise to use his team’s two match tour of South Africa as an opportunity to freshen up his players and offer playing exposure to newcomers by selecting a team considered light on experience for Saturday’s top of the log clash in Cape Town.
Cullen’s team for the second game against the DHL Stormers, the penultimate game of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship league season, features several changes from the so-called second-string side that pushed the Cell C Sharks before going down in Durban last weekend.
There is not one survivor in the Leinster group to take on the Stormers from the match day 23 that did duty for Leinster in the second leg of the Champions Cup round of 16 tie against Connacht two weeks ago.
There was a smattering of players who took part in that game in action in Durban, but it appears the reports of them all flying home this week might have been true for none of them feature now.
Leinster have earned the right to manage their players by getting themselves into a position where it is now almost impossible for them to be denied top spot - Cullen says his team needs two log points from their final two games to be certain but in reality the points differential makes it just one - and they have been clear about their strong focus on next week’s Champions Cup quarterfinal away against Leicester Tigers.
The Irish province has dominated the URC in its previous incarnation as the PRO14 over the past few years, but they’ve made a habit just recently of stumbling in the knock-out stages of the Champions Cup. So, their determination to win the quarterfinal is understandable.
There is still plenty of experience in the team, with skipper and No8 Rhys Ruddock boasting over 200 caps, but that is more caps than the rest of his pack combined.
Cullen may have chosen wisely though, for inside centre Roy O’Loughlin brings over 95 caps to his role of being part of the key backline decision-making axis with flyhalf Ciaran Frawley, who is one of the survivors from last week’s closely fought tactical battle and who has 51 caps to his name. That means there is experience in that key game-driving area.
However, Frawley will be playing alongside a first time starter in the form of scrumhalf Cormac Foley, who is one of several Leinster Academy players in the starting team and match day squad. It will be Foley’s fourth cap as he has played for the Leinster senior team off the bench.
Hooker is certainly an area where the visitors appear to have something in common with the Stormers, at least when it comes to what is available from within their touring squad.
Without the injured Scarra Ntubeni, the Stormers lack experience in that position, but they are up against a team that has two hookers in their match day squad who have picked up just one cap each.
Lee Barron made his debut last week and plays off the bench, with John McKee starting. Lock Brian Deeny is another debutant from last week who will continue in this game.
Six of the starting team have less than 10 caps to their names. However, Stormers coach John Dobson will note that there is experience in both the Leinster back-up halfbacks and will still be wary of what the champions and log leaders can bring as many of the players playing on Saturday have contributed to getting Leinster into their top position on the log.
Sometimes just being part of a winning culture can be worth several notches of performance level, as the Leinster team that played last week against the Sharks showed.
Although they lost, they were the better team for part of that battle and Dobson would have noted that.
Leinster team to play DHL Stormers:Max O’Reilly, Adam Byrne, Jamie Osborne, Rory O’Loughlin, Rob Russell, Ciaran Frawley, Cormac Foley, Rhys Ruddock (captain), Scott Penny, Alex Soroka, Josh Murphy, Brian Deeny, Thomas Clarkson, John McKee, Ed Byrne.
Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Vakh Abdaladze, Jack Dunne, Sean O’Brien, Nick McCarthy, Harry Byrne, Martin Moloney.