Youth takes back seat as big guns line-up for battle

SHANE JENNINGS took exception to the suggestion when it was put to him earlier in the week that the season really only starts tonight for Leinster and Munster but there is more than a grain of truth in such a line of thinking.

The understudies in both provinces have done everything asked of them. Ireland’s World Cup contingent have returned to domestic duties with both sides having won five and lost two games in the Rabobank PRO12 and hovering near the summit of the table.

Up-and-comers like Ian Keatley, Mike Sherry, Stephen Archer, Peter O’Mahony as well as Fionn Carr, Eoin O’Malley, Dave Kearney, Rhys Ruddock and Leo Auva’a have kept the flags flying while banking crucial game time.