Heineken Cup: Leinster v Llanelli Scarlets

by Brendan Cole

Leinster appeared to be on the brink of a troubling period when Jonathan Sexton's hand injury ruled him out of Heineken Cup Rounds Three and Four but last week's display against Llanelli showed that they are a squad of genuine quality.

Granted, Llanelli performed horribly in the four-try 7-32 defeat at Parc Y Scarlets, but Leinster still had to do the job of putting them away. They did so in some style and the sheer volume of players in excellent form - from Rob Kearney, Shane Horgan, Sean O'Brien, Nathan Hines, to Isa Nacewa - tells you something very good is happening on the training pitch from week to week.

And though he looked slightly uncomfortable earlier this season, Australian import Shaun Berne slotted in very nicely at out-half in Sexton's absence and did enough to give his outside backs plenty of chances to run at a very soft Llanelli wide defence.

The question is whether or not Llanelli can produce a turnaround in their form in time to make this match a contest. With a host of big players still out of the selection mix, the answer is almost certainly 'no', although the smallish RDS pitch may give them some hope that they can keep things a little tighter.

Morgan Stoddart, Dafydd Jones, Matthew Rees, Regan King and Rhys Thomas are all injured, by Ross Turnbull is suspended.

Llanelli - changes to personnel out wide

Changes have been rung out wide and at number seven with Rhys Priestland in for Dan Evans at full-back, Darren Daniel replacing Lee Williams after his dreadful outing last week and Jon Edwards in for injured flanker Richie Pugh.

For Leinster, the weakpoints are, once again and despite the changes, in the wide channels, with King crucially still unavailable at outside centre. The defence on the wings was desperately poor at times on Saturday and at 13 and 15, Sean Lamont and Rhys Priestland are clearly vulnerable again. The selection of Priestland at full-back hints that Llanelli hope to keep Leinster at arm's length through a long kicking game but that may backfire as Leinster can put pressure on the sometime back-up out-half's catching by putting up garryowens instead of punting long.

Elsewhere, Leinster look good enough to do a simple job based on winning first phase, keeping ball in hand, taking it through phases and scoring tries out wide as mis-matches arise. They look a class above and a solid win, coupled with a Munster defeat in Perpignan, could yet see the current Champions rise to the top of Heineken Cup betting lists by Sunday evening.

Prediction: Leinster 35-6 Llanelli Scarlets

Leinster v Scarlets, RDS on Saturday, 19 December. Kick-off 3.45pm:

Leinster: Rob Kearney; Shane Horgan, Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy, Isa Nacewa; Shaun Berne, Eoin Reddan; Cian Healy, John Fogarty, CJ van der Linde; Leo Cullen (capt), Nathan Hines; Kevin McLaughlin, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip.

Replacements: Bernard Jackman, Mike Ross, Stan Wright, Malcolm O'Kelly, Stephen Keogh, Paul O'Donohoe, Fergus McFadden, Girvan Dempsey.

Scarlets: Rhys Priestland; Darren Daniel, Sean Lamont, Jonathan Davies, Andy Fenby; Stephen Jones, Martin Roberts; Iestyn Thomas, Ken Owens, Deacon Manu, Lou Reed, Dominic Day, Simon Easterby, Johnathan Edwards, David Lyons (capt).

Replacements: Emyr Phillips, Phil John, Jamie Corsi, Vernon Cooper, Rob McCusker, Tavis Knoyle, Daniel Evans, Gareth Maule.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (Eng)

Watch extended highlights and analysis on RTÉ 2 at 9pm