Ciaran Clarke and Reggie Corrigan will both be pitched into the lion's den that is the Stade Jean Bouin this Saturday for Leinster's daunting European Cup pool A game against the reigning French champions and competition favourites Stade Francais.
In Clarke's case it seems as if he's being pushed in at the deep end, as it will be his first start of the season since aggravating an achilles tendon injury on the hard grounds of South Africa in last summer's Irish tour. The Terenure full back only made his seasonal comeback with half a game in his club's 42-15 Kitty O'Shea Leinster Championship win at home to Clontarf last Saturday.
Corrigan, meanwhile, was completing his first full game of the season in Lansdowne's 22-17 win over St Mary's after two 40minute appearances over the previous fortnight - part of his comeback from the back injury he sustained in Ireland's opening tour win over Boland on May 30th.
However, Corrigan took a full part in training last week while Clarke took a full training session on Monday night according to Leinster manager Jim Glennon. He explained that the pair's surprise selection was primarily because this game is the last chance Leinster have of blooding them prior to the Interpro decider with Munster and potentially decisive Euro qualifying games away to Begles and at home to Llanelli.
"We have three heavy games coming up and we need to get them back as quickly as possible, if only as alternatives. No disrespect to the Kitty O'Shea championship, but it's far more beneficial to have them playing in Paris than at club level."
Indeed, both Kevin Nowlan and Emmet Byrne have been selected as substitutes, suggesting that both will probably enter the fray at some juncture on Saturday. Given Leinster have little obvious chance of winning this game - though Mike Ruddock would be the last man in the province to admit that - Leinster might even have taken a more experimental view of this game and gone further by resting some of the walking wounded from last Friday's ferocious match against Begles. However, the likes of Trevor Brennan and Pat Holden have not been retained in an otherwise unchanged side.
In truth, Leinster's depth of experienced personnel is not considerable - hence the hasty return of Clarke and Corrigan - and it's interesting to note that this is the first time this season that Leinster have all seven of their South African tourists back in consideration simultaneously (only Gabriel Fulcher and Victor Costello were in harness at the outset of the campaign).
Six are playing on Saturday, the exception being Denis Hickie who is demoted from the bench to accommodate Nowlan, while Emmet Byrne takes the place of Henry Hurley and Leo Cullen replaces Declan O'Brien on the bench to give Leinster a further line-out option.
Ulster and Munster are likely to pick from full-strength sides today, allowing for the long-term absences of Mark McCall and James Topping, and Munster's Rhys Ellison. Jonathan Bell suffered a hand injury in the win over Ebbw Vale but should be all right for Friday's visit of Toulouse to Ravenhill, while Munster expect both Mick O'Driscoll and Cian Mahony to have recovered from knocks in the defeat by Perpignan for Saturday's visit to Neath - when they could all but seal their qualification for the knock-out stages.
Connacht, after three one-point wins in eight days, may take longest to finalise their team for Saturday's summit meeting with the other unbeaten side in Pool A of the European Shield, Narbonne, with Ian Dillon their biggest concern.
Leinster: Clarke; Dempsey, Horgan, Carey, McWeeney; Murphy, Hegarty; Corrigan, S Byrne, McKeen, Holden, Fulcher (capt.); Brennan, Ward, Costello. Replacements: Scally, McGowan, Nowlan, E Byrne, Smyth, Cullen, Brownlie.
