Leinster have a mountain to climb

MATT WILLIAMS was in surprisingly upbeat mood at Dublin Airport yesterday given Leinster’s onerous task .

The odds seemed stacked against Williams’ team as the Leinster Lions boarded a plane for the South of France and a meeting with Montferrand today in the Heineken Cup.

Malcolm O’Kelly’s back is still causing concern, then there’s the fact that a win would represent the province’s first on French soil. A loss would not end Leinster’s progression in the tournament but would seriously dent such ambitions.

Yet Williams was trying to remain upbeat. “It’s really an enormous task, they’re a very wealthy club. They’re sponsored by Michelin and 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.” .

A decision on O’Kelly will be made before kick off this afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Connacht team to play Narbonne in the first leg of their Parker Pen Challenge Cup tie shows five changes from that which played against Munster in the Celtic League quarter-final at the weekend.

Hooker Marnus Uijs is ruled out through injury with Jerry Flannery coming into the side. There are two changes in the back row with Eric Peters starting at No.8 and Michael Swift coming in at blindside flanker.

Wayne Munn returns to the side on the left-wing, while Eoin Reddan is selected at scrum-half .

The return leg will take place at Corinthian Park on Sunday, December 15.

LEINSTER (v Montferrand): 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.

CONNACHT (v Narbonne): M. McHugh; G. Duffy, D. Yapp, S. Moore, W. Munn; E. Elwood, E. Reddan; R. McCormack, J. Flannery, P. Bracken; D. Browne, R. Frost; M. Swift, E. Peters, J. O’Sullivan.

Replacements: F. Boiroux, H. Bourke, C. Rigney, J. O’Connor, C. Keane, T. Robinson, J. Norton.