News article – Style E 2283

Leinster Lions coach Matt Williams and his squad jet out from Dublin Airport this morning en route to the south of France and a meeting with Montferrand in Round Three of the Heineken Cup, a game that could have a huge bearing on the outome of this competition. Not that defeat need necessarily end either sides hopes but the confidence that Leinster would gain from their firswt win on French soil, and against such opposition, would make them an even more formidable force.

It’s really an enormous task that we face, there’s no two ways about it. I mean they’re a very wealthy club. They’re sponsored by Michelin. They can probably pay their bench more than we pay our entire squad and they’ve never lost a home game in the European Cup. So it doesn’t get much tougher than that but I’ll tell you the boys are really looking forward to it. They’re up for it. Bring em on said an upbeat Leinster Lion coach Matt Williams, speaking to RTE’s Michael Corcoran prior to the squad’s departure.

The squad includes Malcolm O’Kelly who was in some doubt earlier in the week having hurt his back in the game against Borders and at this stage he is till on the doubtful list but obviously hopes are that the hugely influential O’Kelly will be fit to make the starting line-up. All the incentive is there for Leinster, not least being the fact that they’ve never won in France and if they get that particular monkey off their backs then anyone who hasn’t backed them for ultimate glory will find very poor value odds on offer come Saturday evening.
Leinster: G Dempsey; D Hickie, B O’Driscoll, S Horgan, G D’Arcy; C Warner, B O’Meara; R Corrigan (Capt), S Byrne, E Byrne, L Cullen, M O’Kelly, E Miller, V Costello, K Gleeson.
Replacements: P Coyle, G Hickie, A Kearney, A McCullen, B O’Riordan, N Spooner, D Quinlan.

Montferrand: S Viars; J Marlu, J Ngaumo, R Chanal, D Bory; G Merceron, G Sudre; S Bozzi, R Cockerill, L Tsabadze, T Jaques, O Brouzet, A Audebert, M Raynaud, O Magne.
Replacements: D Ashvetia, A Castola, E Lecomte, J Machacek, D Von Hoesslin, X Sadourny, Y N Gog.