RUGBY NEWS ROUND-UP:LEINSTER'S SQUAD is starting to take shape. CJ van der Linde arrived last week, Rocky Elsom lands tomorrow and Leo Cullen has been added to a 32-man squad from which Michael Cheika will select his team and replacements for Friday's eagerly anticipated game at home to the star-studded, high-flying Ospreys, who lead an embryonic table after three wins from their opening three matches.

Newly installed forwards coach Jonno Gibbes can scarcely conceal his delight at the arrival of the Springboks prop and the Wallabies backrower.

"They're two excellent acquisitions and I think they're going to fit right in. CJ brings one hell of a right shoulder, really. I hope we can look after that right shoulder. He's going to be massive for us. He's not only a set-piece prop but offers value around the field. Obviously his understanding of the ELVs will be an asset.

"With Rocky, you're going to see a class operator, who won't mind mixing it up. I think he'll fit right in from what I've seen of the Magners League. There's a real physicality over there. In my experience at home, we have those games now and then, when we're playing a local derby but every game over here, they love bashing each other and he'll fit right in with that. He won't be afraid of that."

Starting out on his coaching career, Jonno Gibbes admits he's still very much on a learning curve, all the more so in getting to know his new charges at Leinster. Similarly, he admits that the intensity Cardiff brought to their first game of the season at home was an eye-opener for him.

By contrast, he says: "Edinburgh, for me, was a reflection of our Monday to Thursday. We prepared bloody well during the week and Friday was an outcome of how well we'd been prepared. The players were focused and didn't give Edinburgh a hell of a lot and we took the opportunities that we created.

"I still wouldn't say that we played a whole heap of rugby in that game but we certainly converted the opportunities that we created and I think that was a real positive."

As a recently retired player, who captained Waikato for the last six seasons in which they reached their holy grail of the NPC title in 2006 and when he led the Maoris to victory over the Lions, the eight-times capped All Blacks blindside flanker is also finding it difficult to take a back seat.

His outlook on the task facing Leinster this Friday is straightforward, with collisions again the key. "They are going to bring a big, physical pack from one through to eight and they will be hugely committed. It's going to be vitally important that we meet that head on and win the gain line."

LEINSTER (squad v Ospreys):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; Cian Healy, Stephen Knoop, Ronan McCormack, Bernard Jackman, Brian Blaney, John Fogarty, Stan Wright, Cameron Jowitt, Malcolm O'Kelly, Leo Cullen, Devin Toner, Trevor Hogan, Stephen Keogh, Shane Jennings, Sean O'Brien, Kevin McLaughlin, Jamie Heaslip.