Leinster are close to full power

RUGBY: Leinster will be much nearer full-strength than they had originally expected for tomorrow's eagerly awaited showdown with a buoyant Connacht side at Donnybrook.

And with the Steph Nel's team actually ahead of Leinster in the Pool A pecking order, Matt Williams was palpably relieved about that.

Not considered due to injury were Brian O'Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey, Nathan Spooner, Emmett Byrne, Adam Magro, Peter McKenna, but otherwise Leinster were able to recall all their international players.

Denis Hickie and a fit again Shane Horgan return to the side, as do seven of the pack who were on Irish duty last weekend.

There's even a chance that Eric Miller, suffering from bruised ribs, might play on the blind side of the back-row and thus prove his fitness for Ireland's World Cup qualifier the following week in Russia. However, Williams admits that Miller's chances are no better than 50-50.

The game marks Shane Horgan and Malcolm O'Kelly's 50th caps for Leinster. Gordon D'Arcy, despite being the youngest player in the team, will move on to 48 caps and remains at full back while Kieran Lewis stays at outside centre and Christian Warner again edges out Andy Dunne at outhalf.

Rarely has an impending Leinster-Connacht match engendered so much interest. Sadly, though, the match will not double up as an Interprovincial. Indeed, to all intents and purposes, the IRFU have decreed that the interpros are defunct.

Despite being squeezed out by the advent of the Celtic League it still seems an awful shame that a championship which has been a common thread in the Irish rugby calendar for 55 years will be no more.

For four years in the 90s it was given a shot in the arm by the inclusion of the Exiles and, ironically, it never enjoyed greater success than in the past few seasons when it was a home and away competition.

One round of the interpros could still be effectively incorporated in the Celtic League. Similarly, some provincial match-ups might be pencilled in were any of the provinces to progress to the knock-out stages, and two spare weekends had been set aside for the interpros.

Yet, curiously, an IRFU spokesperson reasoned yesterday that "there's no room for them anymore".

This confirms that qualification for the European Cup is a closed shop, to the exclusion of Connacht who will be diverted toward the Parken Pen Cup indefinitely.

LEINSTER: G D'Arcy; D Hickie, K Lewis, S Horgan, J McWeeney; C Warner, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, P Wallace, L Cullen, M O'Kelly, E Miller/A McCullen, V Costello, K Gleeson. Replacements: N Treston, P Smyth, B Gissing, D Dillon, B Willis, A Dunne, D Quinlan.