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Leinster change two, but Ringrose and Keenan remain absent

Jamison Gibson-Park (second right) celebrates a Leinster try versus La Rochelle with Will Connors, Ciaran Frawley and Caelan Doris (Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Leo Cullen has made two changes to his Investec Champions Cup semi-final XV to host Northampton in Dublin on Saturday from the Leinster team that dethroned La Rochelle in last month’s quarter-finals.

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The Irish province swatted aside their French rivals, winning 40-13 after successive narrow defeats to Ronan O’Gara’s team in the 2022 and 2023 finals.

Leinster sent a second-string squad to South Africa where they were beaten by the Lions (12-44) and the Stormers (12-42) in recent weeks in the URC.

Video Spacer

Nemani Nadolo on his peak and once being considered “too big”

Video Spacer

Nemani Nadolo on his peak and once being considered “too big”

Former Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo chats to Liam Heagney about when he reached his peak and how he was actually at one stage considered too big to play rugby.

Now, ahead of a semi-final that will attract a sold-out 82,300 attendance to Croke Park, Cullen has unveiled a selection that shows two switches in the pack from their frontline team named three weeks ago in their previous Champions Cup outing.

Midfielder Garry Ringrose, who missed out in the quarter-finals, was declared fit at the start of this week after his recent shoulder issue but he hasn’t been included in the match day 23. Neither has full-back Hugo Keenan, whose hip injury was said last Monday to be under further assessment.

Fixture
Investec Champions Cup
Leinster
20 - 17
Full-time
Northampton
All Stats and Data

That means Leinster have named the same backline that took apart La Rochelle, but they have made alterations in their pack with Ross Molony named in the second row and Jason Jenkins benched.

Josh van der Flier has also been promoted from the replacements to be this weekend’s starting openside, with Will Connors losing out.

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Against La Rochelle, Leinster went with a six/two forwards/backs split but that now reverts to a five-three split to face Northampton as Jimmy O’Brien has been chosen as an extra backline option.

Loosehead Cian Healy, who didn’t feature the last day, is restored to the bench with Michael Milne missing. If he plays, Healy will become the all-time appearance holder in the history of the Champions Cup as he is currently on 110 alongside O’Gara.

Leinster (vs Northampton, Saturday)
15. Ciaran Frawley (83)
14. Jordan Larmour (103)
13. Robbie Henshaw (87)
12. Jamie Osborne (42)
11. James Lowe (77)
10. Ross Byrne (157)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (137)
1. Andrew Porter (117)
2. Dan Sheehan (58)
3. Tadhg Furlong (142)
4. Ross Molony (178)
5. Joe McCarthy (31)
6. Ryan Baird (65)
7. Josh van der Flier (138)
8. Caelan Doris (78) CAPTAIN

Replacements:
16. Ronan Kelleher (58)
17. Cian Healy (274)
18. Michael Ala’alatoa (66)
19. Jason Jenkins (36)
20. Jack Conan (142)
21. Luke McGrath (207)
22. Harry Byrne (65)
23. Jimmy O’Brien (76)

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Soliloquin 28 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

I don’t know the financial story behind the changes that were implemented, but I guess clubs started to lose money, Mourad Boudjellal won it all with Toulon, got tired and wanted to invest in football , the French national team was at its lowest with the QF humiliation in 2015 and the FFR needed to transform the model where no French talent could thrive. Interestingly enough, the JIFF rule came in during the 2009/2010 season, so before the Toulon dynasty, but it was only 40% of the players that to be from trained in French academies. But the crops came a few years later, when they passed it at the current level of 70%.

Again, I’m not a huge fan of under 18 players being scouted and signed. I’d rather have French clubs create sub-academies in French territories like Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia and other places that are culturally closer to RU and geographically closer to rugby lands. Mauvaka, Moefana, Taofifenua bros, Tolofua bros, Falatea - they all came to mainland after starting their rugby adventure back home.

They’re French, they come from economically struggling areas, and rugby can help locally, instead of lumping foreign talents.

And even though many national teams benefit from their players training and playing in France, there are cases where they could avoid trying to get them in the French national team (Tatafu).

In other cases, I feel less shame when the country doesn’t believe in the player like in Meafou’s case.

And there are players that never consider switching to the French national team like Niniashvili, Merckler or even Capuozzo, who is French and doesn’t really speak Italian.

We’ll see with Jacques Willis 🥲


But hey, it’s nothing new to Australia and NZ with PI!

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