D'Arcy To Make 200th Appearance For Leinster

The Leinster team to face Munster in Saturday night's RaboDirect PRO12 derby encounter at Thomond Park (kick-off 7.30pm) has been named.

Gordon D'Arcy will become only the second Leinster player in history, behind Shane Horgan, to reach the 200 cap landmark when the Wexford man lines up in Limerick on Saturday.

D'Arcy, 32, made his provincial debut away to Edinburgh in September 1998 and to date he has scored 306 points in Leinster colours - 55 tries, five penalties, four drop goals and two conversions - over a span of 14 seasons.

D'Arcy will link up in the centre with the fit-again Brian O'Driscoll, who successfully came through his first appearance of the season against the Ospreys last weekend.

Luke Fitzgerald will become the province's 18th player to reach the 100-cap mark. He forms a potent back-three alongside Isa Nacewa and the returning Rob Kearney, with Eoin Reddan partnering Jonathan Sexton at half-back.

Number 8 Jamie Heaslip captains the team as part of an all Ireland international back row alongside Shane Jennings and Kevin McLaughlin.

All Black ace Brad Thorn locks down alongside Devin Toner for his first experience of the Leinster-Munster rivalry, while South African Heinke van der Merwe has been named in the front row alongside Ireland internationals Sean Cronin and Mike Ross.

Leo Cullen, who returned from Achilles surgery against the Ospreys last time out, and fellow internationals Cian Healy and Sean O'Brien are listed among the replacements.

LEINSTER (v Munster): Rob Kearney; Isa Nacewa, Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald; Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan; Heinke van der Merwe, Sean Cronin, Mike Ross, Brad Thorn, Devin Toner, Kevin McLaughlin, Shane Jennings, Jamie Heaslip (capt).

Replacements: Richardt Strauss, Cian Healy, Jamie Hagan, Leo Cullen, Sean O'Brien, Isaac Boss, Ian Madigan, Fergus McFadden.

Previewing Saturday's RaboDirect PRO12 final against Leinster with Cóilín Duffy, Ulster winger Andrew Trimble said: "We really motivated for this game. People are talking about us being the best Ulster side in a few years, we had that record of 13 wins in a row at the start of the year. We want to win trophies, and there's no point having those records unless we back them up."

Connacht elite player development officer Jimmy Duffy chats about the province's latest programme, 'Grassroots to Green Shirts', which they hope will increase the number of indigenous players coming through the provincial player pathway. In the westerners' current senior squad, there are 19 players who have come through the Connacht system.

Speaking about Connacht's 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' initiative, the province's CEO Tom Sears said: "We like to think we're innovative in our approach, that we're looking at things slightly differently. We've shown that the production line is working with the young players coming through. The system is working, we just need a bit more investment to make sure we can get more players through."

Connacht's head of commercial and marketing Alex Saul talks about some exciting developments off the pitch for the province, including their 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' crowd-funding initiative which gives fans the chance to play their part in growing and developing the future stars of Connacht and Irish rugby.

Speaking after the 30-11 home win over the Dragons, Connacht head coach Eric Elwood said: "We're a little bit disappointed we didn't get the bonus point, but the good thing is we got a good victory at home and we had a great crowd. We're back on the horse and it sets us up for Harlequins (next week)."

Speaking about recovering from the disappointing defeat to the Scarlets, young Leinster centre Noel Reid said: "We went over looking for a result and we didn't perform the way we wanted to. So we need a big week now of training and focusing on the things that didn't go our way - the breakdown in particular."