THE RETURN OF Luke McGrath had meant that James Lowe was expected to come back onto the left wing for Leinster’s Champions Cup final clash with Racing 92 but lingering concerns over the scrum-half may change the selection picture.
While McGrath is still expected to start in the nine shirt for Leinster, it appears the province still have some nagging doubts over whether he will be fit enough to complete the majority of the game.
McGrath is set to return from an ankle injury and with concerns about whether it will hold up for 80 minutes against a physical Racing outfit, Leinster could opt to include the more experienced Jamison Gibson-Park on the bench ahead of Nick McCarthy.
Gibson-Park deputised for McGrath in the semi-final victory over the Scarlets, while also impressing in a group-stage start away to Montpellier, and would be seen as the safer bench option in the event that McGrath was reinjured early against Racing.
If Gibson-Park is to be included, that would mean Lowe missing out on the matchday squad – as he did for the semi-final on account of EPCR’s limit of two ‘non-European players’.
Scott Fardy is set to continue at blindside flanker in an unchanged Leinster pack, with Rhys Ruddock and Jack Conan providing cover from the bench.
If Lowe is not included, then Jordan Larmour would likely come into Leinster’s starting team, with Isa Nacewa continuing on the left wing, where he featured against the Scarlets.
With Leinster set to officially name their matchday 23 at midday on Friday, it will be intriguing to see which way their selection calls go.
Missing out on the Champions Cup final altogether would be a major blow for either of Lowe and Gibson-Park.
Meanwhile, Racing are expected to name a settled matchday 23 on Friday, with Teddy Iribaren set to replace the injured Maxime Machenaud at scrum-half.
There is an important call to make at tighthead between the heavyweight Ben Tameifuna and Sedate Gomes Sa, while the experienced Census Johnston returned from a four-week ban last weekend in the Top 14.
Argentinian wing Juan Imhoff, who was omitted for the Champions Cup quarter-final and semi-final wins over Clermont and Munster, has been in superb try-scoring form over the past fortnight and has put major pressure on Marc Andreu on the left wing.
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Way to go Troy. And sond plonker on here a while ago said the Dutch league is the worst it’s been in generations…. on the contrary it seems at its best in a while
@robert kelly: it’s more a case of the other leagues regressing rather the Dutch league on the up. Psv is decent. Feynoord had a good result against the worst AC Milan team I can ever remember. Ajax are pale shadow of the club they used to be. Indeed, they were very to go through having lost at home to Royal Union. Twente was knocked out by the mighty Bodo. Dutch league itself is a goal fest every week. Entertaining perhaps but not a great standard overall.
@Ray Ridge: yea it’s probably a bit of both Ray. The last i seen it looked like Twente were going thru I didn’t realise they collapsed until after I posted so my bad and yea Ajax are a shadow of themselves but PSV and Feyenoord progressing in the champions and AZ in the europa, but it was actually more in relation to someone saying Parrot was at best a championship level player but I think the Dutch legue deserves more respect and Troy is showing his talent on arguably a much bigger stage and fair play to him. Hope Alkmaar go deep in it and they’re doing well in the league as well