Leinster Rugby vs Zebre Parma
United Rugby Championship
RDS Arena, Dublin
Saturday, 9th October 2021, 13:00
TV: Live: RTE2, Premier Sports
As predicted, last week Leinster comfortably beat the Dragons in a routine win!
Now it's time to focus on Leinster's return to the RD...
Sorry, what was that?
It wasn't comfortable at all?
Leinster only scored once after 14 minutes and only won 7-6 in the end???!!!
Ah come on, it couldn't have been that bad could it?
23 turnovers! Just the one score from 16 visits to the Dragons twenty two! 6 lineouts lost!
Yep, RTE audiences were reintroduced to live Leinster rugby with one of the worst games in living memory. Yes, it was a wet day but Leinster have played far better in worse conditions. Hopefully it will stand to a few lads never to take the opposition lightly, despite what a preview might say.
In fairness it's not that long since Leinster had a similar performance in a 3-0 win in Italy against tomorrow's opposition Zebre. So these performances can happen on the road, but thankfully not too often. Under the tutelage of former Connacht coach Michael Bradley, Zebre saw some improvement in the last few years and picked up a few wins. However they're still going to be strugglers for the foreseeable future and have begun the season with two home defeats against the Lions and Ulster. Bradly has selected experienced internationals like Mattia Bellinia and Andrea Lovetti in his starting team for tomorrow.
It's almost all change for Leinster with only Michael Ala'alatoa and Rhys Ruddock retained from last week's lamentable display. Ed Byrne and Sean Cronin make their first starts of the season alongside Ala'alatoa in the front row. Devin Toner and Ryan Baird form a new second row pairing and Dan Leavy and Scott Penny join Ruddock who switches to number eight in the back row.
It's an all new backline with Jimmy O'Brien making his first start of the season at full back in the back three with Adam Byrne and Jordan Larmour. Byrne makes his first start since December 2019 after a terrible run of injuries. Jamie Osborne and Ciaran Frawley form an interesting centre pairing. Harry Byrne is back from injury to start at ten and Luke McGrath captains the team from scrum half.
Now I know we said Leinster should win easily enough last week, but if they don't win at a canter tomorrow, there's really something wrong.
Oh and it's great to be back at the RDS finally!
| Leinster Rugby |
Zebre Parma |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | Jimmy O'Brien | 15 | Jacopo Trulla |
| Adam Byrne | 14 | Pierre Bruno | |
| Jamie Osborne | 13 | Erich Cronje | |
| Ciaran Frawley | 12 | Enrico Lucchin | |
| Jordan Larmour | 11 | Mattia Bellini | |
| Harry Byrne | 10 | Antonio Rizzi | |
| Luke McGrath (C) | 9 | Nicolo Casilio | |
| Ed Byrne | 1 | Andrea Lovotti | |
| Sean Cronin | 2 | Oliviero Fabiani (C) |
|
| Michael Ala'alatoa | 3 | Ion Neculai | |
| Devin Toner | 4 | Cristian Stoian | |
| Ryan Baird | 5 | Andrea Zambonin | |
| Dan Leavy | 6 | Iacopo Bianchi | |
| Scott Penny | 7 | Luca Andreani | |
| Rhys Ruddock | 8 | Renato Giammarioli | |
| Replacements | Ronan Kelleher | 16 | Massimo Ceciliani |
| Peter Dooley | 17 | Danilo Fischetti | |
| Cian Healy | 18 | Matteo Nocera | |
| Ross Molony | 19 | David Sisi | |
| Max Deegan | 20 | Giovanni Licata | |
| Nick McCarthy | 21 | Guglielmo Palazzani | |
| Johnny Sexton | 22 | Tommaso Boni | |
| Rob Russell | 23 | Paolo Pescetto | |
| Not Considered
due to Injury |
Jack Dunne, Will Connors, Tom Clarkson, Josh Murphy, Tommy O'Brien, Dave Kearney, Michael Milne, Caelan Doris, Rory O'Loughlin |
Tommaso Castello, Marco Manfredi, Johan Meyer, Daniele Rimpelli, Gabriele Venditti, Giosue Zilocchi |
|
| Officials | Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU) | ||
by Jim O'Connor, © 2021-10-08
