Leinster v Scarlets – Preview, Team News, Odds, Where To Watch

JoeNa Connacht — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 11:26:38 +0000

Leinster will welcome Scarlets to the RDS Arena on Saturday in round four of the United Rugby Championship.

Leinster, who have been crowned champions for the past four seasons, sit a point behind Ulster and leaders Munster, last term’s beaten finalists, with the latter two having accumulated an extra bonus point.

Leo Cullen’s side have a fearsome record against Welsh opponents, suffering just one defeat to any of the four regions since September 2018 – a 24-19 loss to the Ospreys in Dublin back in March.

The Scarlets will be looking to bounce back from a below-par showing against a rotated Munster side in Round 3 but will need to earn their first away win since a 27-25 victory in Edinburgh at the end of February.

Their last three victories against Irish provinces have all been at Connacht’s expense while they have won just twice at the RDS in 15 visits in all competitions.

Leinster were 52-25 victors when these sides met in Llanelli in January and took the bragging rights at the RDS last season as well.

Leinster have confirmed that fly-half Harry Byrne and centre Rory O’Loughlin have been ruled out of the side’s upcoming United Rugby Championship clash.

However, there is a lot of positive news for the defending champions as several players have stepped up their recovery.

Cullen confirmed that Jordan Larmour (groin) and Adam Byrne (hamstring) came through the game against Zebre Parma with no issues and will train as normal this week.

The pair scored three tries between them at the weekend in the 36-point win over the Italians.

Also making a return to training this week will be Josh Murphy who has recovered from a calf injury.

There was also further positive news for Jack Dunne who aims to return to full training this week as he returns from an ankle injury.

Ciarán Frawley will start despite a soft tissue issue earlier in the week.

Tomas Lezana will make his debut for Scarlets when he starts at openside flanker in Dublin.

Teams

Leinster

15. Hugo Keenan (32)
14. Jordan Larmour (63)
13. Garry Ringrose (88)
12. Ciarán Frawley (38)
11. James Lowe (53)
10. Johnny Sexton (175) CAPTAIN
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (103)
1. Andrew Porter (79)
2. Rónan Kelleher (26)
3. Tadhg Furlong (114)
4. Ross Molony (119)
5. James Ryan (52)
6. Caelan Doris (41)
7. Josh van der Flier (100)
8. Jack Conan (105)

16. Dan Sheehan (15)
17. Cian Healy (234)
18. Michael Ala’alatoa (3)
19. Ryan Baird (30)
20. Rhys Ruddock (191)
21. Luke McGrath (153)
22. Ross Byrne (106)
23. Jimmy O’Brien (36)

Scarlets

15 Ioan Nicholas; 14 Johnny McNicholl, 13 Jonathan Davies (capt), 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Ryan Conbeer; 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Gareth Davies; 1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ken Owens, 3 WillGriff John, 4 Lloyd Ashley, 5 Sam Lousi, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 Tomas Lezana, 8 Blade Thomson

Reps: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Rob Evans, 18 Samson Lee, 19 Morgan Jones, 20 Shaun Evans, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Dan Jones, 23 Tom Rogers.

Odds

Leinster 1/14

Draw 35/1

Scarlets 15/2

Where To Watch

Kick-Off: 5.15 pm – live on TG4, S4C, Premier Sports and URC TV.

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Leinster v Scarlets – Preview, Team News, Odds, Where To Watch

Teams

Odds

Where To Watch