Benetton Rugby vs Leinster Rugby
Heineken Champions Cup Round 6
Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso
Saturday, 19th January 2020, 13:00
TV: Live on BT Sports
Leinster face a trip to Italy for the third time this season. They are looking to seal top seed in the standings for the knock-out stages for the second time in three seasons.
It's worth remembering that both of those previous trips to Italy were actually narrow wins. There was the roller-coaster of a 32-27 win in the first game of the season in Benetton. It could haven't been more different to the dire 3-0 slog of a win in Zebre. Now of course in both cases it was far from Leinster's first choice team but Leinster still need to be on their guard for Saturday.
Benetton have been very competitive in the pool this season. They annoyed the hell out of Leinster in the first match in the RDS and really should have beaten Northampton at home only losing to a last minute penalty kick. They were well beaten away to Lyon in December but got revenge the week after by beating them at home. Last week they went to Northampton and gave them an almighty scare before losing to a few late scores.
Their coach Kieran Crowley has named a strong side as he aims to finish the campaign on a high. Luca Morisi, Monty Ioane and Ian Keatley are the stand-out names in the backs while Braam Steyn, Alessandro Zanni and Hame Faiva are all useful forwards.
Last week's win over was comfortable yet flawed and Leo Cullen will have had plenty for his team to work on this week. With a six day turnaround, Cullen has shuffled his team somewhat with Sean Cronin and Andrew Porter coming into the front row. James Ryan is fit to replace Scott Fardy in the second row and Caelan Doris comes in to start at number eight. Interestingly the in-form Max Deegan is moved to number six in place of Rhys Ruddock. The backline is unchanged and Luke McGrath skippers the team from scrum-half.
Benetton will give a good account of themselves but a steady professional performance should seal top seed for Leinster.
| Benetton |
Leinster Rugby
|
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | Jayden Hayward | 15 | Jordan Larmour |
| Angelo Esposito | 14 | Dave Kearney |
|
| Luca Morisi | 13 | Garry Ringrose |
|
| Marco Zanon | 12 | Robbie Henshaw |
|
| Monty Ioane | 11 | James Lowe |
|
| Ian Keatley | 10 | Ross Byrne | |
| Tito Tebaldi | 9 | Luke McGrath (C) |
|
| Federico Zani | 1 | Cian Healy |
|
| Hame Faiva | 2 | Sean Cronin | |
| Simone Ferrari | 3 | Andrew Porter |
|
| Alessandro Zanni | 4 | Devin Toner | |
| Eli Snyman | 5 | James Ryan |
|
| Marco Barbini (C) | 6 | Max Deegan | |
| Braam Steyn | 7 | Josh van der Flier |
|
| Toa Halafihi | 8 | Caelan Doris | |
| Replacements | Tomas Baravalle | 16 | James Tracy |
| Nicola Quaglio | 17 | Peter Dooley | |
| Cherif Traore | 18 | Tadhg Furlong | |
| Ira Herbst | 19 | Ross Molony | |
| Giovanni Pettinelli | 20
|
Rhys Ruddock | |
| Marco Lazzaroni | 21 | Jamison Gibson-Park | |
| Antonio Rizzi | 22 | Ciaran Frawley | |
| Tommaso Benvenuti | 23 | Rob Kearney | |
| Not Considered
due to Injury |
Derrick Appiah, Ignacio Brex, Dean Budd, Dewaldt Duvenage, Marco Fuser, Ornel Gega, Engjel Makelara, Nasi Manu, Sebastian Negri, Marco Riccioni, Federico Ruzza, Ratuva Tavuyara, Charly Trussardi |
Dan Leavy, Barry Daly, Jack Conan, Vakh Abdaladze, Rory O'Loughlin, Ronan Kelleher, Johnny Sexton, Michael Bent |
|
| Officials | Referee: Karl Dickson (England),
Assistant Referees: JP Doyle (England), Anthony Woodthorpe (England), TMO: Rowan Kitt (England) | ||
by Jim O'Connor, © 2020-01-17
