Harry Byrne gets another chance to shine at No.10 as Leinster face Bayonne

Harry Byrne during a Leinster Rugby captain's run at the Parc des Sports Jean Dauger. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Another one for the chattering classes. Leo Cullen can talk rotation all he wants, even if it is with good reason. 

What others tend to see when Harry Byrne is named at No.10 and Sam Prendergast on the bench is a continuation of the guessing game.

This is the last Champions Cup tie before Andy Farrell names his Six Nations squad and, if next week’s URC visit to Galway for the opening of the Dexcom Stadium is big in itself, then this is still a Leinster selection that begs questions about wider implications.

“Every week is an audition for everybody,” said Cullen. “It's [about] not looking too far about different consequences. Players have to just focus on the here and now, which is trying to control what they can, their own performance in the context of what the team needs.” 

Player management loads have played a part in the use of Prendergast, but so has Byrne’s form as he continues to make the case for inclusion with some solid displays and last week’s alpha male demand to kick the winner against La Rochelle.

Prendergast switched to full-back for the final quarter in that one, with Byrne coming on to be the playmaker, but we’ve seen Byrne make the move to inside-centre to accommodate the younger man as well. Needs must and all that.

Leinster have again moved the jigsaw pieces around. Eight changes have been made for this one as some big names – Tadhg Furlong, RG Snyman and Garry Ringrose among them – return from varying lengths of injury-enforced absences.

Jack Boyle’s return to fitness is timely given the expected lengthy absence of Paddy McCarthy who goes for surgery next week, and given Andrew Porter’s muscle injury which is still being figured out and is likely to keep him out for the next few weeks.

Bayonne look like they’ve been stripped bare. The home side is making do without 17 players through fitness issues. The side named here is particularly patched-up up front. They are also rooted to the Pool 3 table with zero points.

Unbeaten at home in two years in the Top 14, they have come up shy in their last two European adventures at the atmospheric Stade Jean Dauger. Leinster will be looking to claim five match points and hope that is enough for the important top-two knockout seeding.

They will have to wait until Sunday evening, when the Glasgow-Saracens and Bristol-Bordeaux-Begles game are done, to know where they stand in the greater scheme of things, and if home advantage has been booked through to the last four.

“I'm not sure exactly, you'd have to ask EPCR exactly how they figure out who plays when on the last day,” Cullen laughed. “I've been trying to find out for years.

“You're sort of watching things unfold and the beauty is, specifically for our pool, we just need to control what we can and that's going out and putting in a proper performance.” 

Bayonne: C Tiberghien, T Spring, S Maqala, M Tuilagi, Y Orabe, J Segonds, H Jantjies, I Calles, L Martin, J Tagi, E Johnson, L Paulos, A Fischer, A Iturria, N Lomidze.

Replacements: F Bosch, E Tumania, E Setiano, A Garcia Iandolino, B Heguy, M Ariceta, G Martocq, V Hannou.

Leinster: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Kenny; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; J Boyle, R Kelleher, T Furlong; RG Snyman, J Ryan; M Deegan, J van der Flier, C Doris.

Replacements: D Sheehan, J Cahir, T Clarkson, J McCarthy, S Penny, L McGrath, S Prendergast, R Ioane.

Referee: L Pearce (Eng).