Carbery back in blue but Prendergast backed for Clermont and Stade Marcel Michelin challenge

Leinster's Joey Carbery. Pic: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Joey Carbery is poised to make his first Leinster appearance in eight years when the province opens its latest Champions Cup assault against Clermont Auvergne in France on Saturday.

Now aged 30, the Kildare man made 37 appearances for his home province before moving to Munster in 2018. He spent six injury-interrupted years with the southern province before switching to Bordeaux-Begles in 2024.

Injury issues afflicted him during his time with the back-to-back 'European' champions too. He carried a long-term knee injury back to Dublin during the summer which means he is only now ready to go.

He will be on the bench for the URC champions at Stade Marcel Michelin.

Sam Prendergast starts at No.10 after an impressive seasonal cameo away to the Sharks and a follow-up start at home to Cardiff, but he will have to make do without Jamison Gibson-Park, who still isn’t ready after suffering a minor groin problem in his pre-season.

That absence, plus the departure in the off-season of the equally experienced Luke McGrath and injury to Cormac Foley, leaves Leinster with a raw pair of scrum-halves. Fintan Gunne starts and the even greener Oliver Coffey backs him up.

Leinster’s 23 has played an average of just 98 minutes per man so far this term so they need to hit their stride quickly against a club with six Top 14 games under them already.

It’s a side still without key figures in Gibson-Park, captain Caelan Doris and Springbok lock RG Snyman, all of whom are unfit for now. 

Doris and Snyman are longer-term absentees. The flip side is that Leo Cullen has been able to name 14 Ireland internationals in his XV.

Another four will be available off the bench.

Clermont are hamstrung by a number of injuries to important players, among them French wing Alivereti Raka, Les Bleus prop Régis Montagne and Georgian front row Giorgi Dzmanashvili.

Christophe Urios has seen fit to bring young Espoir Nohem Ez Zahouany into his front row. The academy man came off the bench recently against La Rochelle and is one of seven players playing Champions Cup for the first time.

This is no scratch side, though.

The Top 14 side has named a string of frontline players with plenty of game time under their belts already this season. Six of the pack could be considered first-choice while Baptiste Jauneau and Harry Plummer are hugely influential half-back mainstays.

The rest of the back line is a mix and match. No Kylan Hamdaoui at full-back, or Alivereti Loaloa, for instance, but they have listed Baptiste Delguy and Kevin Noah has featured in five of their Top 14 games to date.

Clermont Auvergne: J Bouraux; B Delguy, AJ Lam, L Darricarrere, J Jurand; H Plummer, B Jauneau; G Akhaldze, B Massa, N Ez Zahouany; T Lanen, D Swain; K Tixeront, A Hemery, K Noah.

Replacements: P Narisia, S Lotrian, L Michaux, L Vermeulen, A Chalus-Cercy, B Germain, M Belaubre, M Frisach.

Leinster: H Keenan; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J O’Brien; S Prendergast, F Gunne; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan.

Replacements: A Usanov, R Kelleher, T Clarkson; C O Tighearnaigh, S Penny, J Carbery, O Coffey, J Osborne.