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All Black and Springbok pair to make Leinster debut

Jason Jenkins (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks centre Charlie Ngatai and Springboks lock Jason Jenkins are set to make their official Leinster bows this weekend in the opening round of the URC.

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Ngatai joined from Top 14 side Lyon, while Jenkins made the relatively short journey from Limerick after a couple of seasons with Munster, where injury hampered his game time.

Leinster takes on Zebre Parma at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi and head coach Leo Cullen has named a mixed side, that includes both experienced Ireland internationals and young gun Leinster products.

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Rhys Ruddock captains the side alongside Scott Penny and Max Deegan in the back row.

Ireland and Lions hooker Rónan Kelleher, who is returning from injury, partners Ed Byrne and Michael Ala’alatoa in the front row, with Ross Molony and Jenkins partnering up for the first time in the engine room.

Luke McGrath and Ross Byrne make up the half-backs with Ngatai joining newly promoted academy product Jamie Osborne in the centres.

There’s also a return for Dave Kearney who back from a long-term injury. He’s named on the left wing with academy duo Rob Russell and Max O’Reilly making up the back-three unit. Will Connors also returns from injury, on the Leinster bench.

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LEINSTER TEAM:
15. Max O’Reilly
14. Rob Russell
13. Jamie Osborne
12. Charlie Ngatai
11. Dave Kearney
10. Ross Byrne
9. Luke McGrath

1. Ed Byrne
2. Rónan Kelleher
3. Michael Ala’alatoa
4. Ross Molony
5. Jason Jenkins
6. Rhys Ruddock CAPTAIN
7. Scott Penny
8. Max Deegan

REPLACEMENTS:
16. John McKee
17. Michael Milne
18. Vakhtang Abdaladze
19. Brian Deeny
20. Alex Soroka
21. Nick McCarthy
22. Ciarán Frawley
23. Will Connors

Referee – Ben Blain (SRU – 21st competition game)

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H
Head high tackle 3 hours ago
Can Samoa and Tonga ever become contenders when their top talent is skimmed?

I think you have gone in the wrong direction here Nick. I think you need to delve down into the rules etc around Moana Pacifica’s selection policies and then you need to understand that a lot of KIWI BORN rugby players have PI heritage. It appears ok for the 4 home nations to pillage NZ born players constantly without retribution but you want to question whether NZ BORN players should be eligible for NZ? Seems a real agenda in there.

Go back and look at the actual Aims and agenda for MP becoming a entity and you see lots of things enshrined in policy that you arnt mentioning here. EG there is an allowance for a percentage of MP to be NZ eligible. This was done so MP could actually become competitive. Lets be real. If it wasnt this way then MP would not be competitive.

There also seems to be some sort of claim ( mainly from the NH ) that NZ is “cashing in” on MP, which , quite frankly is a major error. Are you aware of how much MP costs NZR Financially?

39 NZ born rugby players played at the last world cup for Samoa or Tonga. PLUS plenty for Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.

Taumoefolau is a BORN AND BRED NZer. However I very strongly doubt he will be an AB, but who do you believe he should be allowed to play for? Levi Aumua is ALSO a born and bred Kiwi.

Aumua was eligible to represent Samoa and Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup in July that year but ended up playing for neither. He IS eligible for his nation of Birth too Nick

He is a Kiwi. Are you saying an NZ born, raised Kiwi cant play for NZ now?

Sorry Nick Kiwi born and bred actually qualify for NZ.

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