Dan Sheehan will captain Leinster for their URC Round 10 clash against the Stormers (Saturday, KO 5pm) at the Aviva Stadium.
The fixture marks the 26-year-old’s first match since suffering an ACL tear in the first Test against South Africa last July, while left wing James Lowe, who picked up a leg injury playing for Ireland against Australia in the Autumn Nations series, will wear the Leinster jersey for the first time since last October.
Secondrow RG Snyman will face some familiar faces, the Stormers boasting many of his Springbok team-mates, while Jordie Barrett provides quality and experience in a backline that includes a couple of talented tyros in fullback Henry McErlean and Andrew Osborne.
Jack Boyle was furloughed from Ireland camp to get some game time and will join Sheehan and Lowe on a flight to Portugal to link up with Simon Easterby’s squad on Sunday morning. Rabah Slimani has been released from the French camp to play the game.
The Counter Ruck: the rugby newsletter from The Irish Times
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Leinster supporters will be interested to see how the younger generation, Brian Deeny and Alex Soroka in the run-on team and Paddy McCarthy, Rory McGuire, Diarmuid Mangan, James Culhane and Charlie Tector on the bench fare against a physically strong Stormers side liberally sprinkled with Springboks.
Warrick Gelant, Manie Libbok, Ben-Jason Dixon and Deon Fourie all come into the visitor’s starting line-up, where Evan Roos is a standout talent, while Frans Malherbe, Salmaan Moerat and Herschel Jantjies are named among the replacements.
LEINSTER: H McErlean; A Osborne, L Turner, J Barrett, J Lowe; R Byrne, L McGrath; J Boyle, D Sheehan (capt), R Slimani; RG Snyman, B Deeny; A Soroka, S Penny, M Deegan. Replacements: J McKee, P McCarthy, R McGuire, D Mangan, J Culhane, W Connors, C Foley, C Tector.
STORMERS: W Gelant; B Loader, R Nel, J Roche, L Zas; M Libbok, P de Wet; A Vermaak, J Dweba, N Fouche; JD Schickerling, R van Heerden; D Fourie, B-J Dixon, E Roos. Replacements: A-H Venter, B Harris, F Malherbe, S Moerat, M Theunissen, P de Villiers, H Jantjies, W Simelane.
Referee: E Cross (IRFU).
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