ONE WOULD IMAGINE there has a bit of apprehension floating around the Zebre camp this week.

The Italians managed to register just three points at home to Ulster last weekend, and Michael Bradley’s squad will have spent the days since trying to digest that disappointing outing while a rather daunting trip to Dublin loomed large.

Leinster didn’t look like themselves as the scraped past the Dragons following a scrappy, error-ridden 80 minutes in Newport on Sunday, but Leo Cullen’s team don’t really do back-to-back below-par performances. 

With that in mind, you’d have to worry for Zebre as the two sides meet at the RDS today [KO 1pm, RTÉ Sport, Premier Sport].

The province have used this week to remind themselves of the high standards they set, with Devin Toner – who makes his first appearance of the season today – addressing the squad, speaking about his own journey and how much the blue jersey still means to him.

Leinster, who are looking to win a fifth successive league title, take this stuff seriously.

Cullen has reacted to that oddly underwhelming trip to Wales by injecting his backline with a healthy dose of youth and creativity.

A new back three sees Jimmy O’Brien, Adam Byrne and Jordan Larmour all come in for their first appearances of the season, with Byrne lining out for the first time since December 2019 following a lengthy lay-off.

The highly promising duo of Ciarán Frawley and Jamie Osborne represent a new centre pairing, while Harry Byrne gets his first run-out of the year in the 10 shirt and six Ireland internationals line out in a powerful looking pack.

“(It is) A very frustrated group off the back of last week’s performance against Dragons,” Leo Cullen explained during Friday’s pre-match press conference. “It’s good to get a win away from home but we probably didn’t manage the conditions particularly well.”

With so much play-making ability in that Leinster backfield, Zebre could be in for another difficult afternoon as they too try out some new combinations against a side they have lost to 15 times straight.

Bradley has named an entirely new starting XV, handing debuts to centre Erich Cronje and flanker Luca Andreani.

It’s closing in on a year since the visitors last won a game outside of Italy, but they will take some encouragement from the fact that at various stages over the past 12 months, Leinster have at times slipped below their usual high standards.

Cullen was asked to put his finger on why that has happened. A case of standards rising elsewhere perhaps? Or maybe the challenges presented by the past 18 months has seen Leinster slip back towards the chasing pack?

“I don’t know, but there’s a human nature involved. It’s one of the great unknowns,” he said.

“A team will always steal a march at various different stages, whether that’s slight tweaks in terms of the laws and how they’re interpreted – certain teams adapt quicker and then others catch up and the gaps close.

“There’s the competition, recruitment, one team falls off and another rises. That’s just sport.

“That’s why it’s so hard to stay at the top for so long, because I’m hearing lots of different teams out there saying ‘We want trophies, we want trophies… our plan this year is to win trophies’, there’s 16 teams all trying to do the same thing ultimately. Do all 16 teams (in the league) all believe they can win a trophy? Plenty of them do.

“So you’ve got to try and stay ahead of the competition at all times and the competition is always trying to challenge.

“I definitely think there’s a narrowing for sure, the way the competition (URC) is structured in particular means there’s less moving parts.

“You’d (previously) play teams at different stages and they might be missing X amount of players, but there’s no clash with the internationals now and that’s the most obvious change, and slightly less games is a change as well.

“Last year there was a certain war of attrition element to the season, because there was so many internationals. The four normal Tests plus those Six Nations Tests, six Tests and finishing the previous season.

“Hence why we used a very big number of players last year, so it’s hard to imagine we’ll use that many this season looking at it now.”

And of course, less games equals less windows for players to impress in this stacked Leinster squad.

With last week’s selection failing to make the most of their chance, expect this group to seize today’s opportunity with both hands.

Leinster Rugby: Jimmy O’Brien; Adam Byrne, Jamie Osborne, Ciarán Frawley, Jordan Larmour; Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath (captain); Ed Byrne, Seán Cronin, Michael Ala’alatoa; Ryan Baird, Devin Toner; Dan Leavy, Scott Penny, Rhys Ruddock.

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Peter Dooley, Cian Healy, Ross Molony, Max Deegan, Nick McCarthy, Johnny Sexton, Rob Russell. 

ZEBRE: Jacopo Trulla; Pierre Bruno, Erich Cronje’, Enrico Lucchin, Mattia Bellini; Antonio Rizzi, Nicolo’ Casilio; Andrea Lovotti, Oliviero Fabiani (captain), Ion Neculai; Cristian Stoian, Andrea Zambonin; Iacopo Bianchi, Luca Andreani, Renato Giammarioli.

Replacements: Massimo Ceciliani, Danilo Fischetti, Matteo Nocera, David Sisi, Giovanni Licata, Guglielmo Palazzani, Tommaso Boni, Paolo Pescetto

Referee: Sam Grove-White [SRU] 

Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey chat all things Connacht, Munster, Leinster and Ulster — and welcome back the AIL — on The42 Rugby Weekly

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