Leinster to blow weakened Harlequins away in  Champions Cup opener

Leinster's Joe McCarthy. Pic: Andrew Conan/Inpho

It’s eight months since Leinster nilled Harlequins in the Champions Cup round of 16 and, with the Londoners stuttering and registering another duck against Exeter in October, you wouldn’t rule out another.

The visitors’ team announcement only heightens those odds.

Harlequins come to Dublin for this Pool D opener with a new coach, Jason Gilmore, having replaced Danny Wilson, but it’s not as if everything has been all sweetness and light for Leinster since these two last met.

Losing to Northampton Saints in last season’s semi-final was as crushing a loss as their three previous final shortcomings and it questions further the wisdom of the strategic shift towards the defence under Jacques Nienaber.

Nienaber’s disgruntlement with how an interview he gave with South African TV last month was perceived here only adds to the sense of a team in need of some cheer after a start to a season compromised by absent British and Irish Lions and some poor displays and results.

Sixth in the URC table, they will be looking for a 28th straight Champions Cup pool win on Saturday evening – discounting the voided ‘loss’ to Montpellier during Covid - and they will go about it with 22 Test-experienced players in their ranks.

There is no Hugo Keenan, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe, Andrew Porter or the suspended James Ryan but Joe McCarthy plays for the first time this term. And Caelan Doris and Jack Conan wear blue for the first time since last May.

Another first will come when Rieko Ioane appears off the bench for his Leinster debut. An 88-cap All Black he may be, but he has something to prove after some poor recent form and in the wake of Jordie Barrett’s sublime form for the province last year.

Quins have won just two of their six Prem games so far, one of those against the winless Newcastle, and on the back of a defeat in Gloucester last week when, according to captain Alex Dombrandt, they let their supporters down.

Dombrandt is one of eleven players unavailable here through injury but more pertinent is another list of those - Marcus Smith, Fin Baxter, Chandler Cunningham-South, Jack Kenningham - ruled out due to mandatory rest periods.

Leinster may be huffing and puffing for now, but they should blow these Quins away.

Leinster: J O’Brien, T O’Brien, G Ringrose, C Frawley, J Larmour, S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park, P McCarthy, D Sheehan, T Clarkson, RG Snyman, J McCarthy, J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris.

Replacements: R Kelleher, J Boyle, T Furlong, D Mangan, M Deegan, L McGrath, H Byrne, R Ioane.

Harlequins: C Anderson; C Cleaves, O Beard, L Northmore, C Murley; J Evans, W Porter; B Wenger, J Walker, H Williams; K Treadwell, S Lewies; Z Carr, W Evans, T Lawday.

Replacements: G Turner, W Hobson, P Delgado, J Launchbury, L Schmid, L Friday, J Benson, B Bradley.