Kearney's good form rewarded

Celtic League/Previews: Leinster coach Michael Cheika rewards former Ireland under-19 captain Rob Kearney for some decent pre-season form in friendlies with a place on the left wing in the team to take on the Ospreys in the opening round of the Celtic League tomorrow.

Kearney muscles his way into the backline ahead of Gary Brown, who is named on the bench. Brian O'Meara is preferred to Guy Easterby at scrumhalf, Ronan McCormack and Bernard Jackman are chosen ahead of Emmett Byrne and David Blaney while Des Dillon makes his seasonal competitive debut in the second row alongside Ben Gissing.

Ciarán Potts is named at blindside flanker in an athletic and mobile backrow. Felipe Contepomi will captain the side from the centre, where he forms a midfield partnership with Kieran Lewis. It'll be a decent test for the latter, especially as he's likely to be up against Sonny Parker, a high-quality, international-class player.

In Brian O'Driscoll's absence and for the moment that, too, of Gordon D'Arcy, Lewis has an opportunity to showcase his undoubted ability. He's got all the attributes and then some: he's just got to reinforce that fact on the pitch.

Cheika is well aware of what to expect from the defending Celtic League champions. "I have watched a fair few of their games from last season and also (reviewed) an analysis of their game against London Wasps. They have a good roster, pretty deep."

The Ospreys - like Leinster - will be without their Lions players, including Gavin Henson, Shane Williams, Brent Cockbain and Ryan Jones, but can call upon their new signing, former Llanelli centre Leigh Davies.

Cheika observed: "He's a big unit at 12, running it up the middle. We want to have our defence sorted out. They're definitely going to be bigger than us but that doesn't always mean they are going to be better than us. One big thing we have to do down there is to take our opportunities."

Leinster's most recent warm-up match, against Northampton at Donnybrook last Friday, was a very useful exercise from the perspective of fine tuning one or two small aberrations. Cheika admitted: "I saw some things in our defence that we have to change: push up (more) on the inside."

He singled out the scrum for special mention. Leinster need to front up tomorrow in a way that they haven't always done in the past. The Ospreys will make it physical and if the visitors cede an inch then they're in for a long afternoon.

OSPREYS (from): S Terblanche, R Mustoe, S Parker, L Davies, A Bishop, A Brew, M Jones, J Spice, R Wells, S Connor, A Lloyd, S Tandy, A Wyn-Jones, L Beach, I Evans, A Newman, L Bateman, A Millward, D Jones, P James, B Williams (capt), H Bennett.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; B Burke, K Lewis, F Contepomi (capt), R Kearney; C Warner, B O'Meara; R McCormack, B Jackman, W Green; D Dillon, B Gissing; C Potts, K Gleeson, E Miller. Replacements: G Brown, E Hickey, G Easterby, E Byrne, D Blaney, S Crawford, J Heaslip.

Referee: R Dickson (Scotland).

Head to Head: September 2003 (CC) at Donnybrook: Leinster 35 Ospreys 21; November 2003 (CL) at The Gnoll: Ospreys 25 Leinster 36; April 2004 (CL) at Donnybrook: Leinster 16 Ospreys 16; October 2004 (CL) at St Helen's: Ospreys 11 Leinster 3; March 2005 (CL) at Donnybrook: Leinster 12 Ospreys 16.

Forecast: Ospreys to win.