Leinster ace Kearney targets return to winning ways

AFTER their injury woes last week in France, Leinster’s strength in depth will be tested to the full tonight as they return to Magners League duties against the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium.

Having planned all week without the stricken Chris Whitaker and Girvan Dempsey, coach Michael Cheika’s preparations were skewed further by the withdrawal of Gordon D’Arcy yesterday afternoon.

The Ireland centre was originally named in the first 15 for tonight’s game but was later omitted having failed to recover from the knock suffered against Toulouse last weekend.

The late alteration has had some knock-on affects with Felipe Contepomi switching to 12 to cover D’Arcy’s absence and Jonathan Sexton promoted from the bench to take the reigns at out-half.

Mindful of the close proximity of games this week, Cheika had already planned to make a host of changes for the trip to Wales. Rob Kearney replaces Dempsey at full-back with Luke Fitzgerald coming on to the left wing. Cillian Willis comes in for Whitaker at scrum-half.

In the pack, Stan Wright, Leo Cullen and Keith Gleeson remain from last weekend with Cameron Jowitt, who came on as a sub against Toulouse, forming a new back-row partnership alongside Kevin McLaughlin and Ireland international Gleeson.

Ireland ‘A’ hooker Brian Blaney also comes into the starting line-up.

The Liberty Stadium wouldn’t be the first choice of venue for a team looking to rebound from a demoralising defeat but, with nine of the hosts’ players on international duty tomorrow against South Africa, now is as good a time as any.

‘‘No-one is more determined than the players and the coaching staff to get our performance right (tonight),’’ said Kearney. ‘‘We set the highest standards for ourselves and, to be honest, the short five-day turnaround is the perfect medicine to get back on the horse and hopefully back to winning ways.’’

Brian O’Driscoll was especially damning of his own team’s performance in the immediate aftermath of the match at the Stade Ernest Wallon and with good reason.

Though they began the game encouragingly and were on level terms at half-time, the individual error count soared as the evening went on with Kearney himself guilty of coughing up one of the four tries with a blocked clearing kick.

In fairness, the 21-year-old is quick to hold his hand up on that count.

‘‘Last weekend’s defeat in Toulouse came down as much to individual errors as opposed to anything else. Our concentration wasn’t as good as it had been the previous week, but we’re all really looking forward to the challenge against an excellent Ospreys side.’’

Despite his tender years, Kearney has made 50 appearances for Leinster already and has become a more integral part of the side since Denis Hickie’s retirement after the World Cup.

Tonight, he will have reason to reflect on just how far he has come as it was in this very fixture two seasons ago that the Louth man made his bow with his home province.

‘‘I made my senior debut in the Liberty Stadium two years ago and what I remember from the game was that it was a huge step up at the time, physically. I took a few early blows and they scored a try from a block down kick from me, which was a huge blow.

‘‘I recovered though and was pleased to get on the score sheet. It was the opening game of the season and the game was played in front of a big crowd, which was really exciting. It’s a fantastic stadium to play in.’’

Leinster (v Ospreys): R Kearney; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, F Contepomi, L Fitzgerald, J Sexton, C Willis; S Wright, B Blaney, J Gomez; L Cullen, D Toner; C Jowitt, K Gleeson, K McLaughlin. Replacements: B Jackman, C Healy/O le Roux, M O’Kelly, S Jennings, C Keane. C Warner, G Brown.