Leinster's only spur is pride

Celtic League / Leinster v Neath-Swansea: At this stage Leinster are probably dying to see the back of this generally unfruitful season. It's hard not to count down the weeks at this stage.

It should be a night of celebratory cheer as Victor Costello joins Shane Byrne in the 100-cap club, while Brian O'Driscoll and Peter Coyle both hit the 50-cap mark. However, all is not as rosy as it seems.

The 51-20 mauling handed out by Llanelli a fortnight ago undoubtedly stung their pride. A strong selection, which contains nine internationals, will attempt to atone for that abysmal performance this evening.

There can be few excuses if they under perform again, especially considering the squad is no longer suffering from mass absenteeism brought about by a long international season and chronic injury list.

Yet, the Ospreys will not be lacking incentive either. Their presence in next year's Heineken European Cup is still on the line. With three games remaining they are seven points clear of Cardiff Blues so victory here would go a long way to allaying those fears.

Also, they have plenty of pace to match the dancing feet of O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy. On the wings, South African Stefan Terblanche and Shane Williams are proven world-class finishers, while Gavin Henson is no slouch at full back.

Just as O'Driscoll signing a two-year contract with the IRFU bolstered Leinster, both Williams and Welsh loosehead Duncan Jones put pen to paper for the Ospreys this week.

Leinster should hold sway but that is by no means a foregone conclusion. To secure victory they will need to rediscover the form that took them to the semi-finals of the European Cup last season.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; G D'Arcy, B O'Driscoll, D Quinlan, B Burke; F Contepomi, B O'Meara; R Corrigan, S Byrne, P Coyle, M O'Kelly, B Gissing, D Dillon, N Ronan, V Costello. Replacements: E Byrne, G Hickie, L Cullen, A McCullen, B O'Riordan, S Horgan, J McWeeney

NEATH-SWANSEA OSPREYS: G Henson; S Terblanche, J Storey, D Tiueti, S Williams; S Connor, A Williams; D Jones, B Williams, A Jones, A Newman, L Tait, J Thomas, R Pugh, J Bater. Replacements: R Wells/A Millward, A Durston, E Seveali'i, H Bennett, P James, N Bonner-Evans, S Tandy.

Donnybrook, 7.30