The Ireland management will be keeping a close eye on the performances of Michael Bent and Gordon D'Arcy in Friday night's pre-season friendly against Moseley at Donnybrook (7.30). Isaac Boss, Jack Conan and Fergus McFadden have been included among the replacements.
Irish assistant coach Les Kiss explained earlier in the week that Joe Schmidt and his management team would watch footage of matches involving Leinster, Munster and Ulster in which several players released from the Ireland camp will play.
The provinces are facilitating players returning from injury and those who need a competitive environment to sharpen their games. Schmidt will inform the players of the composition of the 31-man World Cup squad on Sunday, 24 hours after Ireland play Wales at the Aviva stadium.
Monitoring
Bent, who twice came on as a replacement in Irish warm-up games against Wales (Cardiff) and Scotland (Dublin), and D'Arcy, who started the Scottish match will both have their performances at Donnybrook monitored. Tommy Bowe and Andrew Trimble will both play for Ulster.
Kevin McLaughlin returns after an eight month injury layoff to captain Leinster, while Isa Nacewa is given his first start since returning to the province, in a side that shows 10 changes from that which beat Ulster last Friday.
Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has opted for a mixture of youth and experience with three Academy players selected from the start in Adam Byrne, Peter Dooley and Peadar Timmins.
Clontarf’s Mick McGrath comes in on the left wing with Byrne retaining his place on the right after his try scoring performance last Friday against Ulster. D’Arcy joins Collie O’Shea in midfield but it’s as you were in the halfbacks with Luke McGrath selected at scrumhalf and Cathal Marsh at 10.
There are a further six changes in the pack with only Peter Dooley and Tom Denton retained from last weeks’ starting team.
Changes
Meanwhile Munster head coach Anthony Foley has made nine changes to the team for Friday night’s visit of London Irish to Musgrave Park.
In the pack John Ryan joins Mike Sherry and Stephen Archer in the front row while John Madigan returns to partner Dave Foley in the second row. Foley is the only forward to start in all three pre-season games.
Jordan Coghlan starts at openside joining Dave O’Callaghan and CJ Stander in the backrow with the South African captaining the side once again from number eight.
For the third successive week Foley introduces a different starting 10 with 18-year-old Bill Johnston making his first senior start and joining Cathal Sheridan in the halfbacks.
Further changes to the backline see New Zealander Francis Saili make his first start for the province while Emerging Ireland tourists Rory Scannell and Andrew Conway both make a return to provincial action with Scannell joining Saili in the centre partnership and Conway named at fullback.
The final change sees academy player Stephen Fitzgerald on the wing with Gerhard van den Heever once again holding on to the 11 jersey for his third consecutive start.
The Munster family connections are as strong as ever with two sets of brothers named in the match-day squad - Rory and Niall Scannell from Cork, and Bill and David Johnston from Tipperary.
Leinster: Isa Nacewa; Adam Byrne, Colm O'Shea, Gordon D'Arcy, Mick McGrath; Cathal Marsh, Luke McGrath; Peter Dooley, Aaron Dundon, Michael Bent; Tom Denton, Mike McCarthy; Kevin McLaughlin (capt), Dan Leavy, Peadar Timmins. Replacements from: : Bryan Byrne, Jamie Hagan, Royce Burke-Flynn, Ross Molony, Dominic Ryan, Isaac Boss, Ross Byrne, Fergus McFadden, Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan, Darragh Fanning, Noel Reid, Ben Te'o and Billy Dardis.
Munster: Andrew Conway; Stephen Fitzgerald, Francis Saili, Rory Scannell, Gerhard van den Heever; Bill Johnston, Cathal Sheridan; John Ryan, Mike Sherry, Stephen Archer; John Madigan, Dave Foley; Dave O'Callaghan, Jordan Coghlan, CJ Stander capt. Replacements from: Niall Scannell, James Cronin, BJ Botha, Donncha O'Callaghan, Robin Copeland, Duncan Williams, Ian Keatley, Shane Monahan, Shane Buckley, Matt D'Arcy, David Johnston.
London Irish: Andrew Fenby, Alex Lewington, E Griffin, Dominic Waldouck, Topsy Ojo; Theo Brophy-Clews, Scott Steele; Tom Court, Gerard Ellis, Richard Palframan; Eoin Sheriff, Matt Symons (Captain), Luke Narraway, Conor Gilsenan;, David Sisi. Replacements: Tom Cruse, Tom Smallbone, Geoff Cross, George Skivington, David Paice, Ollie Curry, Brendan McKibbin, Ross Neal, Christian Lewis-Pratt, Johnny Harris, Jimmy Stevens, Conor Murphy, Johnny Williams.
