Much-changed Leinster face tough Treviso test

LEINSTER’S much-vaunted strength in depth served them well earlier this season but it will be put to the test again in their RaboDirect Pro12 clash at the Stadio Comunale do Monigo against Benetton Treviso this afternoon.

Nine starters from last week’s Heineken Cup win against Glasgow have been replaced. Seven of them – Isa Nacewa, Rob Kearney, Jonathan Sexton, Heinke van der Merwe, Richardt Strauss, Leo Cullen and Sean O’Brien — have been given the weekend off.

In their place come a number of less familiar faces who held the fort in impressive fashion whilst some of those named above were away on World Cup duty. Also back is Fergus McFadden, who returns after an injury-enforced absence last Sunday.

Most affected among the departments is the back row which has been changed in its entirety as Rhys Ruddock, Shane Jennings and Leo Auva’a will assume the jerseys vacated by Kevin McLaughlin, O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip.

McLaughlin and Heaslip have been assigned slots on the bench alongside fellow Irish international Isaac Boss while Brendan Macken and Jack McGrath are among the younger faces held in reserve by Joe Schmidt.

Much of the chopping and changing has been necessitated by the demands of the IRFU’s player management programme – how much is another issue – for what promises to be anything but a jolly to southern Europe. Treviso have won four of their last five Pro12 fixtures and scared the life out of Ospreys, who needed a last-gasp penalty to scrape a fortuitous draw, on their own patch in the Heineken Cup last week.

Leinster’s 29-13 loss at the same ground in September of 2010 was greeted with some surprise in these parts at the time and neither Schmidt nor assistant Jono Gibbes were grateful to be reminded of that day earlier this week.

“It was pretty horrific, to be fair,” said Gibbes.

“What’s really good about this game is that whoever plays in the pack you find out where you are — the reality of forward play. Treviso are a hell of a pack, well coached, abrasive. They have a big back row and get pretty direct.

“As a pack it’s a good sort of place to go down to and judge because I’m sure any weaknesses will be exposed. That’s pretty exciting this week. I don’t think we went down necessarily in the right frame of mind last year and the result, the scoreline, spoke for itself.

“There were some hidings all over the park. We kind of got bullied up front and these players are well aware of that. The players that are getting selected are keen to push on and keep those selections as tight and as difficult as possible.”

Treviso coach Franco Smith has made just three changes to last week’s team and will field a 15 containing a dozen Italian internationals, among them captain and lock Antonio Pavanello and the impressive openside flanker Alessandro Zanni.

LEINSTER: L Fitzgerald, F McFadden, E O’Malley, G D’Arcy, F Carr, I Madigan, E Reddan; C Healy, S Cronin, J Hagan, D Browne, D Toner, R Ruddock, S Jennings. L Auva’a.

Benetton Treviso: L McLean, B De Jager, T Benvenuti, A Sgarbi, B Williams, K Burton, T Botes; M Rizzo, E Ceccato, L Cittadini, A Pavanello, V Berabo, R Barbieri, A Zanni, P Derbyshire.