James Ryan has been named to start for Leinster in their Champions Cup quarter-final against Leicester in Welford Road on Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm) in what will be his first game since suffering concussion in Ireland’s win over England at Twickenham eight weeks ago.
Ryan is the only change to Leinster’s starting XV from the side which completed their round of 16 two-legged victory over Connacht with a 56-20 win at the Aviva Stadium three weeks ago.
It will be Ryan’s first European appearance of the season for Leinster in an injury troubled campaign and his first since his third Leinster game of the campaign against the Scarlets last October. Ryan was the recipient of a high hit by Charlie Ewels 82 seconds into the Twickenham encounter, on foot of which the Exeter and English lock was red-carded and received a suspension of three weeks.
Ryan replaces Josh Murphy, who started both legs of the round of 16 tie against his prospective Connacht teammates, but he misses out altogether for this weekend’s match as Joe McCarthy is named among the replacements for what would be the 6’ 6”, 120kg 21-year-old’s European debut.
Another upwardly mobile young player, winger Timmy O'Brien, is also in line for his European debut after the 23-year-old was named among the replacements, where Cian Healy also returns to the matchday squad.
After captaining the callow side which achieved two highly creditable losing bonus points in Leinster's South African trek, Rhys Ruddock also retains his place on the bench.
Key
"James is such a key guy for us over the last number of years, for Leinster and Ireland. It's good to see him back, he's come through everything," said Leo Cullen. "We could have pushed him for those Connacht games earlier but he's been working away, training for the last four or five weeks, so he should be good to go. We're excited to see him back out there."
While Cullen acknowledged there was a risk in leaving his frontline side at home and without a game for a fortnight, or in taking them to South Africa, he added: “Over the last couple of weeks it’s been about preparing with a massive game in mind.
“It’s an amazing challenge, we know how tough it is. In terms of the history of the competition, winning away in knockout games, it’s a great test for guys and everyone is excited now, looking forward to the challenge.”
“We were certainly frustrated the way Europe ended for us last season. We’ve got a group who have worked hard all year to get themselves into this situation, selection has been tough this week because a lot of good players have missed out as well, but that’s what you need if you want to be successful in the two competitions that we’re in, the top English and French teams are no different.”
Along with Shane Jennings, Cullen spent an invaluable two seasons at Leicester from 2005 which in turn fed into much of Leinster’s ensuing success and his admiration for his former club remains undimmed.
“Set piece will be huge, yeah. It’s the work they put in for each other, if you saw their game against Bristol at the weekend, it sums up the way they’ve played this season. They bring a lot of intensity to the game.
“I know there was quite a bit of emotion in the ground last week with Tom Youngs leading the team out but their game plan is based on strong fundamentals, strong set piece, strong kicking game, strong chasing game.
“Kevin Sinfield, who has worked on their defence, again just hearing soundbytes from players and having followed him as a Rugby League player, I know what a strong character he is so you can see that in the players themselves now.
“So they have that strong work ethic, which is all important. It’s going to be a huge test for our guys and that’s what it is going to be like at this stage of the tournament.
“We’re away in a great rugby ground. I was lucky enough to play there as a player for that team, played against them as well, so I understand both sides of it.
Respect
“The reason I went to England at the time is because I had so much respect and admiration for Leicester as a club, I think I went there in 2005, Leicester won Europe in the early 2000s, 2000, 2001, and you were trying to find out what a successful club looked like from the inside.
“So I was lucky enough to experience that and when I’m watching them now at the moment, they’re back in that sort of vein.
“ I know it’s going to be a great challenge but this is why we do all the work all season ourselves, to play against the best teams in Europe and Leicester are definitely in that bracket at the moment, they’ve won all their games at home this season so we’re going to have to pull in a very, very special performance for us to get a result over here.”
That aforementioned Twickenham clash was also notable for the way Mathieu Raynal, who is referee for this quarter-final, interpreted the scrums and penalised Ireland six times. Tadhg Furlong, who renews acquaintances with Leicester and England loosehead Ellis Genge, cut a frustrated figure that day although it is understood that in the feedback from the Six Nations at least three of those were incorrect.
“Yeah, we have had a fair bit of discussion and there was a fair bit of feedback coming off that game as well, in terms of some of those EPCR clips,” Cullen confirmed.
"Some of what England were doing that day at Twickenham has been well flagged, particularly around Ellis Genge and what they term as sidesteps left and hitting and chasing as well so a lot of that has come out through the EPCR channels and some of the feedback post-Six Nations as well so for our guys just making sure that we are trying to impose ourselves in some of those setpiece tussles. "It's a huge part of the game and exciting challenge in store for the big boys, going hard at it. They are two good forward packs going at it."
LEICESTER TIGERS: Freddie Steward; Chris Ashton, Matias Moroni, Guy Porter, Harry Potter; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Ellis Genge (capt), Julian Montoya, Dan Cole; Ollie Chessum, Calum Green; Hanro Liebenberg, Tommy Reffell, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Nic Dolly, James Whitcombe, Joe Heyes, Harry Wells, George Martin, Richard Wigglesworth, Freddie Burns, Nemani Nadolo.
LEINSTER: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O'Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Johnny Sexton (capt), Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong; Ross Molony, James Ryan; Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.
Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Cian Healy, Michael Ala’alatoa, Joe McCarthy, Rhys Ruddock, Luke McGrath, Ross Byrne, Tommy O’Brien.
