Riordan gets nod for Connacht

PROMISING full-back Danny Riordan — he will be 22 on Monday — has received a timely birthday with his inclusion in the Connacht side to play Edinburgh Gunners in the Magners League at the Sportsground tomorrow night.

The Galway native, who graduated from the ranks of Colaiste Iognaid and Corinthians, makes his first start of the season at full-back.

Riordan, who made seven appearances in his first campaign last season off the bench, was in superb scoring form in pre-season, notching five tries in the games against Narbonne and Rotherham. His call-up is one of three changes, with John Hearty coming in for the injured Paul Warwick, while Matt Mostyn moves from full-back to the right-wing to the exclusion of Conor McPhillips.

Captain John Fogarty, now fully recovered from a back injury, starts at hooker for the first time this season.

Trevor Hogan is back in the Leinster squad that take on Llanelli Scarlets in Saturday’s Magners League clash in Stradey Park (5.30). The Irish second-row, who missed out on the victory over Cardiff last week because of an ankle injury.

Ireland stars Keith Gleeson and Denis Hickie are again included, alongside rookies Jamie Heaslip, Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney, who were all involved in Ireland’s mini-training camp this week.

Leinster coach Michael Cheika is aware of the difficulty facing his side. “We’ve got a tricky week to negotiate,” he said, after an error-ridden performance against Cardiff last week.

“We worked on the technical side of things early in the week, so our teamwork sessions will be done later.

“Sometimes handling suffers because players are focusing on the right positioning, so there’s a danger of over-cooking which can lead to errors. I mean, we can catch the ball — it’s not something that we can’t do — but we must improve our concentration.

“We’ve got to build on the aggression that we’ve shown in the games so far, but I have been pleased with our defence,” he said.

Cheika praised new signing Owen Finegan, the former Australian international, for his contribution so far, saying: “Owen has taken a leadership role in terms of calling the line-outs and he’s putting a lot of time into that side of things, as have the likes of Stephen Keogh and Trevor, which is pleasing.”

He continued: “Niall Ronan has recovered from a bruised hip and is available for selection. I would say that (Gordon) D’Arcy and possibly even (Malcolm) O’Kelly could be right for next week (away to Connacht) alongside (Brian) O’Driscoll and (Shane) Horgan.”

But Cheika is taking stock of what he has to deal with. He pointed out: “Cameron Jowitt is also back in contact training, but I want to make it clear that I’m against the view that if we don’t have certain players available then we won’t win.”

Yet, he insists that it will be tough going. He said: “Llanelli have been playing well and they must be near favourites for the title. We will need to be physical going down there and if we make mistakes we won’t win. They will look to try to shut down (Felipe) Contepomi and we’ll need to be on our best game to win.”

Llanelli coach Phil Davies will hope to keep that promise of a tough game after announcing a near full-strength side. The early Magners League leaders have made eight changes to the side that went top of the table with a 37-15 win at Connacht last Friday.

Lions half-backs Dwayne Peel and Stephen Jones are re-united with Wales quartet Mark Jones, Iestyn Thomas, Gavin Thomas and Alix Popham .

Meanwhile Ospreys coach Lyn Jones is keeping his options open, naming a 22-man squad for their trip to Ravenhill to face Ulster on Friday night. Lions Gavin Henson, Shane Williams, Ryan Jones and Brent Cockbain are all included.

CONNACHT: D Riordan; M Mostyn, J Hearty, G Williams, K Matthews; M McHugh, C Keane; B Wilinson, J Fogarty, B Sturgess; D Gannon, A Farley; J Muldoon, M Lacey, C Rigney.

Replacements: A Flavin, M Diffley, M Swift, R Ofisa, T Tierney, D Slemen, D Yapp.

LEINSTER: Forwards (14): J Wickham, R Corrigan, W Green, R McCormack, B Jackman, H Vermaas, A Byrnes, O Finegan, T Hogan, K Gleeson, R Leyden, J Heaslip, S Keogh, N Ronan

Backs (11): G Easterby, C Whitaker, F Contepomi, C Warner, G Brown, L Fitzgerald, D Hickie, R Kearney, R McCarron, M Berne, K Lewis

LLANELLI: C Thomas; M Jones, M Watkins, R King, D James; S Jones, D Peel; I Thomas, M Rees, C Dunlea, I Afeaki, S Macleod, S Easterby (capt), A Popham, G Thomas. Replacements: D Manu, K Owens, A Jones, J Bater, C Stuart-Smith, G Evans, B Davies.

NEATH SWANSEA OSPREYS (squad): G Henson, L Byrne, N Walker, S Parker, A Bishop, S Terblanche, S Williams, J Hook, J Marshall, AN Other; P James, A Jones, D Jones (capt), B Williams, E Shirvington, I Evans, B Cockbain, AW Jones, L Beach, J Thomas, R Pugh, R Jones.