Leinster ‘A’ Team Announced For Moseley Match

There are six personnel changes to the starting line-up from the round 4 win over Ealing Trailfinders last month. Billy Dardis comes in at full-back in place of Cian Kelleher who is named on the bench.

Tom Daly shifts to outside centre with Steve Crosbie coming in to start in the number 12 jersey. Darragh Fanning starts on the left wing, with Nick McCarthy lining out at scrum half to complete the changes in the back-line.

In the pack, Peter Dooley and Ross Molony’s call-ups to the senior squad for the Champions Cup match with Bath see Jeremy Loughman come in to start at loosehead prop and David O’Connor named in the second row with Tadhg Beirne. Peadar Timmins once again captains the team from the back row.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s game, Leinster ‘A’ head coach Hugh Hogan said: “We’re expecting a tough challenge this week with Moseley. Their Championship standing belies their form. They’re a team that can play well, especially at home.

“They’ve had a couple of narrow losses to probably the best teams in the Championship – they ran Bristol very close, they ran Bedford very close, and they’re probably disappointed to come out losing those games against teams that are pushing for promotion. We’re not taking them lightly.

“The other challenge going over to Moseley this weekend is the conditions. We’ll have one half going into the wind and one half with the wind. Getting our tactics right is important.

“Moseley play there most weeks and it’s something that they manage very well in the footage we’ve seen. In B&I round 1 they were 31-5 down at half-time against Ealing but turned around with the wind and they ended up winning the game.

“There’s the added benefit of knowing if we get a win we’ll have qualified (for the quarter-finals) which is brilliant, but we’re just focusing on this weekend. We’ll have a look at Rotherham and talk about Rotherham early next week.

“We’re fighting with Moseley to win the pool at the moment. We’re on 19 points, they’re on 14 points and if they beat us they’re going to close that gap. The pool is by no means won yet. Our focus is, as best we can, to try and dominate this fixture, win the game and then secure qualification.”

LEINSTER ‘A’ (v Moseley): Billy Dardis; Adam Byrne, Tom Daly, Steve Crosbie, Darragh Fanning; Cathal Marsh, Nick McCarthy; Jeremy Loughman, Bryan Byrne, Oisin Heffernan, David O’Connor, Tadhg Beirne, Josh Murphy, Dan Leavy, Peadar Timmins (capt).

Replacements: Aaron Dundon, Andrew Porter, James Ryan, Tony Ryan, Charlie Rock, Ross Byrne, Cian Kelleher.