Leinster have that Friday feeling

If it's Friday night it must be Donnybrook. Leinster's home venue has never been so popular, helped in no small matter by the high-calibre rugby which the boys in blue are producing. If scaling the heights of last week's stunning 40-10 win over Toulouse doesn't lure us back, then nothing will.

It's taken a few years for this young team to strike a rapport with its sometimes judgmental support, but last week's standing ovation and lap of honour showed that the bond has never been stronger. That win extended Leinster's unbeaten run at Donnybrook to 14 games, and also stretched this season's winning run to eight out of eight.

Perhaps the only potential blot on this landscape is that the crowd, if not the team, could become a little blasΘ, and expect to see Brian O'Driscoll, Denis Hickie et al run in tries by right. For although last week's scoreline was fitting testimony to the team's defence and opportunism, as their new captain Reggie Corrigan conceded during the week, it was also a little misleading in terms of the balance of play.

What makes Newcastle particularly dangerous is that they are obliged to swing from the hip after last week's 34-21 defeat to Newport.

No team has ever progressed to the knockout stages after losing their opening two pool games, and while it wouldn't be impossible for Newcastle to qualify if they lost again tonight, it would be difficult. Perhaps that home loss reflected Newport's experience of last season's Cup campaign in contrast to Newcastle's novice status at this level.

Of course, while Newport were bringing the likes of Adrian Garvey and Rod Snow off the bench last week, Newcastle had a front-row aged 20, 21 and 22. Call-ups for the more experienced Mike Howe and Ian Peel, as well as the Scottish veteran Doddie Weir, have given their tight five a wily look. Even so, eight of tonight's starting line-up could be aged 22 or under.

Hall Charlton has been named at scrumhalf, with Gary Armstrong on the bench, though if the latter's strained calf is deemed to have recovered sufficiently he will start.

Centre Jamie Noon is doubtful with a shoulder injury. If he is ruled out, Tuigamala will move to centre and highly regarded 21-year-old Michael Stephenson will start on the wing. It's that kind of potential, along with full back Dave Walder and inside centre Tom May, which suggests Newcastle have the most exciting young back line in English club rugby.

That said, unlike the Leinster team of a year or so ago, some experienced campaigners are dispersed strategically through this Newcastle team. Behind the Scottish second-row of Weir and Stuart Grimes is the 33-year-old Samoan warrior Pat Lam, while in addition to Armstrong and Tuigamala, there is England's record points scorer Jonny Wilkinson - 22 going on 32.

Asked how to cope with the metronomic Jonny, Corrigan said drily: "Don't give away any penalties." Corrigan also neatly summarised the Wilkinson threat by observing: "Any opportunity for him to get his foot behind the ball is a disadvantage for us."

Williams travelled to Reading a fortnight ago to see Wilkinson's master class in outhalf play in the win over London Irish. "You could go out and outplay them for 38 minutes but still come in three points down at the interval," Williams noted. The Leinster coach also reckons an intercept try gave Newport a flattering win over Newcastle . "It's not an easy game, nor will it be one-sided," Williams said of tonight.

"They're a side who like to keep the ball alive at all costs," observed Corrigan. "They don't seem to want to come into the contact areas as much as other teams might. That seems to be a trait of the Premiership over there. They like to play a very fast , flowing type of rugby."

Williams stresses Leinster will have to be every bit as aggressive in the tackle as they were a week ago. One imagines that for all the potency and pace of Leinster's outside backs, the more prosaic work at set-piece and ruck time of the foot soldiers such as Shane Byrne, Leo Cullen and Keith Gleeson will determine Leinster's fate.

The pressure on Leinster to win is also great. Presented with your first couple of games at home, indeed in Leinster's case their first three, then it is virtually obligatory to go and win them.

As Bath's form-shredding win in Biarritz and Llanelli's near miss away to Leicester underlined, upsets happen so repeatedly in this competition that they hardly merit the description.

Nevertheless, it's now a measure of Leinster's burgeoning reputation and ability that anything less than a home win here would be an upset. Such expectations go with the territory.