TO EVERYONE ELSE, it is a dead rubber, a box to be ticked; a game that will be dwarfed by the enormity of those matches scheduled for tomorrow.
But to Devin Toner, tonight’s date with Ospreys (Live 8.15pm, TG4, eir Sport) is something much greater than that. This appearance, the 261st of his Leinster career, draws him level with Gordon D’Arcy’s provincial appearance record. To add further context to Toner’s longevity, the team he made his debut against, way back in 2006, is no longer in existence.
At that stage, Leinster’s trophy cabinet looked somewhat bare.
They’d won a Celtic League, but nothing else. Now, they’ve added six more of those trophies (the Celtic League reinventing itself as the PRO14) as well as four European Cups and a Challenge Cup. Add in the three Six Nations titles Toner has won with Ireland and you have a fairly decorative CV to be proud of.
Another title comes tonight, the joint all-time appearance holder for Leinster.
Keeping him company in the pack is Scott Fardy, one of six internationals in Leinster’s team – which is quite the accomplishment when you remember that a further 12 are in the match day 23 for Ireland’s game against England tomorrow, while Dan Leavy, James Ryan and Garry Ringrose are all injured.
There is a milestone too for Ospreys’ Dan Evan, who makes his 200th appearance in the Guinness PRO14.
Rhys Henry makes his first Ospreys start while Cai Evans returns from lengthy injury. “Leinster have a final to look forward to and various bits and pieces, they are much further down the track in their progression and they are the benchmark for people to measure themselves against,” said the Ospreys head coach, Toby Booth.
“It’s another opportunity for the Ospreys to move forward, as a group and to see how much we can transfer on a weekly basis. The one thing I would celebrate around this group of players is that they learn the lessons pretty quickly.
“That is a sign of a team which has potential and we need to keep pushing that potential into performance and wins. We talk about having pride in our performance, so when we look back at it, we have pride in what we do.”
Tonight pride will most likely come before a fall.
Leinster: Max O’Reilly, Rory O’Loughlin, Jamie Osborne, Ciarán Frawley, Dave Kearney, Harry Byrne; Rowan Osborne, Peter Dooley, Seán Cronin, Michael Bent, Ross Molony, Devin Toner, Scott Fardy (CAPT) Scott Penny, Josh Murphy
Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Marcus Hanan, Thomas Clarkson, Jack Dunne, Seán O’Brien, Hugh O’Sullivan, Tim Corkery, Alex Soroka.
Ospreys: Dan Evans (CAPT), Dewi Cross, Owen Watkin, Keiran Williams, Cai Evans, Luke Price, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Rhys Henry, Sam Parry, Ma’afu Fia, Lloyd Ashley, Rhys Davies, Will Griffiths, Morgan Morris, Gareth Evans
Replacements: Dewi Lake, Garyn Phillips, Tom Botha, Olly Cracknell, Sam Cross, Shaun Venter, Josh Thomas, Joe Hawkins.
Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU)
Up the Dubs
indeed…but last weeks game was like a dublin team 20 years ago. +7 victory for Cork. Cunningham needs to go.
Yep, there is something wrong in the camp.
@gold3n: Well in the game now, Nash really kept Cork in it with those saves.
Hey, listen I really hope we do well but I think we’ve taken a step back with this new managment setup. Don’t forget Cork have also been shocking over the past 18 months.
Just when we think we’re going to have a good year we lose to what was being described as the worst Dublin team of all time… More fake news…
Cork are in the same boat as us. They have struggled the past 18/24 months. Beating by a bad Wexford team last year??
Great to see our lads competing. Was expecting a hammering after last week. If it wasn’t for 2 great saves by Nash we could be well ahead.
Pa Horgan is having a shocker out there tonight.
Is this on TV?
Eir sport.
Anthony Dalys commentary is a disgrace here totally one sided.
@John Carroll: Can you blame him considering how bad Cork were?
Could have stayed in it if Pa Horgan learned how to pick up the ball in training for the penalty! Could have Used a Nash Rocket instead of a bobbly one.
@John Boyle Cork like any other county are entitled to be as good or as bad as they want over the seventhy minutes but they should like any other county be entitled to a fair non bias commentary and if Daly cant do that he should head off back to Clare and milk his cows!!!
Great win for Dublin after the poor result v tipp last week. Very poor cork side who will struggle to stay up after that performance. Great to see the dubs compete and show hunger and commitment. Something to build on. Looks like a toss up between dubs rebels and banner for the drop.