Nacewa set for Leinster debut

Leinster will travel to Cardiff Blues with a quality squad on Saturday for their opening Magners League clash of the season at the Arms Park, kick-off at 6.30pm.

Michael Cheika will probably give a debut to Ica Nacewa after a solid pre-season producing three straight wins.

"It has been a good build up. Winning is an important habit to get into and I think that we were perhaps a little bit apprehensive because we didn't have that same form this time last year," he said.

"Obviously there's a building process going on in the lead up to the season, but I don't think that we were as secure as we needed to be (last weekend). That gives us something to work on because we know that Cardiff are capable of playing a hard-working, strong-running and offloading game”.

The team will be named on Friday lunchtime.

LEINSTER SQUAD (v Cardiff Blues):

BACKS: Chris Whitaker, Chris Keane, Paul O'Donohoe, Jonathan Sexton, Felipe Contepomi, Brian O'Driscoll, Gary Brown, Shane Horgan, Luke Fitzgerald, Isa Nacewa, Fergus McFadden, Rob Kearney, Simon Keogh, Eoin O'Malley, Girvan Dempsey

FORWARDS: Cian Healy, Stephen Knoop, Ronan McCormack, Bernard Jackman, Brian Blaney, John Fogarty, Cameron Jowitt, Malcolm O'Kelly, Devin Toner, Trevor Hogan, Stephen Keogh, Shane Jennings, Sean O'Brien, Kevin McLaughlin, Jamie Heaslip.