The next couple of weekends in the Irish rugby calendar constitute something of a mini-breather and the highlight of a pretty humdrum week is probably Lansdowne's 125th anniversary match tonight against the French Barbarians at Lansdowne Road (6.0). The home side was finalised yesterday and due to the withdrawal of the New Zealand Maori full-back Warren Johnson, the former Welsh rugby union and Great British rugby league international Jonathan Davies will now fill the number 15 shirt.
Due to the Irish squad training session this afternoon at the ALSAA complex by Dublin Airport (and the nightmare logistics of navigating the M50, or travelling through town at rush hour) Eric Elwood and Denis Hickie have been left on the bench.
However, they, along with the other replacements - Alan Reddan, Mark McDermott, Enda Bohen and the Kiwi tight-head Mike Meredith who played with Western Australian province last season - are all expected to join the fray at half-time.
An impressive-looking French Barbarians XV, coached by Serge Blanco, managed by Jean-Pierre Rives and making their first appearance on Irish soil, shows two changes from their original selection. Jean-Jacques Crenca and Pau's New Zealander Scott Keith come in at loose-head and open side flanker.
This still leaves them with five internationals. Former French centre Dennis Charvet captains the side at out-half and the pack contains a quartet of French internationals in Vincent Moscato, Jean-Michel Gonzalez, Olivier Roumat and Xavier Blond.
The French Barbarians side also features Alwin Joubert, brother of South African full-back Andre, while Lansdowne second-row Paul O'Connor will guest for the visitors in the second-row.
The four provincial leagues continue apace and in Leinster, there has been a slight upheaval following the removal of Skerries from the competition. Skerries were unable to fulfil a fixture some weeks ago and the Leinster executive last week decided to remove them from the competition because, surprisingly, not even a midweek date could be found to rearrange the game.
The net result is that all Skerries' preceding games in Section A have been deleted from the records and no longer count in the group table. Henceforth, their remaining fixtures will assume the status of friendlies, starting with Saturday's trip to DLSP.
Connacht will defend their women's interprovincial title over the weekend at Crowley Park, where the Irish Exiles will make their first appearance in the competition. There are five games each day, of two 20-minute periods, with the order of play beginning at midday on Saturday and 10.00 a.m. on Sunday.
Pontypridd's Dale McIntosh was last night cleared by the board of European Rugby Cup Ltd of bringing the game into disrepute following his sending-off against Brive.
Lansdowne: J Davies; M Dillon, R Niland, K McQuilkin (capt), C Whelan; R Governey, D O'Mahony; W O'Kelly, C Egan, A McKeen, S O'Connor, A Freeman, S Rooney, C McEntee, R Turner. Replacements: D Hickie, E Elwood, A Reddan, M McDermott, E Bohen, M Meredith.
French Barbarians: D Arrieta (Biarritz); C Domini (Stade Francais), J-M Aue (Castres), T Ossard (Begles), A Joubert (USA Perpignais); D Charvet (Stade Francais, capt), F Corrihons (Grenoble); J-J Crenca (Biarritz), V Moscato (Stade Francais), J-M Gonzalez (Section Paloise), O Roumat (Stade Francais), P O'Connor (Lansdowne), M Lievremont (Stade Francais), X Blond (Stade Francias), S Keith (Pau).
