Sport with John Duggan: Leinster make changes after injuries

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:08)

John Duggan joins us now with the Sports News. JD, Dan Sheehan has been picked at number eight for Leinster against Munster on Saturday night. Is this what we were talking about?

John Duggan (0:16)

Yesterday, yes, because Cailan Darius, the Ireland captain, is injured and Jack Conan is injured. So we need backup in that area. And they've moved Dan Sheehan from hooker to number eight. And he's a brilliant rugby footballer. He scores lots of tries. So they moved it around to Leinster for the game against Munster on Saturday at six o'clock at the Viva Stadium.

Sheehan now potential in that role for the November internationals. Would Andy Farrell have known about this in advance? Roland Keller had to play at hooker. It's fascinating to see how he gets on because he's such a good player anyway.

Ciara Kelly (0:49)

It's good that we have a bit of depth, isn't it, that you can actually move players around.

John Duggan (0:52)

Also, look, it's a very specialized sport, right? But we've had, say, tied dead and loose head props.

Andrew Porter can play both positions and you can have players behind the scrum play in different positions. But maybe to go into the back row from hooker has been unusual. But let's see how it goes. James Gibson Parker turning for Leinster, Jamie Osborne getting the nod in the outside center position. Sam Prendergast is injured. So Joey Carberry starts again for Leinster for the first time in eight years, an eight-year spell which included time at Munster. So this is an interesting, I suppose, go along the roundabout. Leo Cullen, the head coach, has spoken about Carberry's return.

Leo Cullen (1:30)

Listen, he's been training away for a good chunk of time now. So he was unlucky. We thought he'd be back for round two originally, and then just picked up a little needle in training when we were away in South Africa. And so we made alternative plans for that game. Great to see him go off the bench at the weekend, even though it was only for a short period. Sam's unlucky because he's picked up a wrist injury this week.

So anyway, Joey's in and Joey's trained. Mostly Sam, that happened to him on Monday. So Joey's trained the rest of the week at 10, and with Casper on the bench now, gives us good options there as well. So yeah, excited to see them keep pushing on. Basically, it was great for the group. So yeah, if you had a little bit of irony there, there probably isn't in terms of as you meant in the game, but he's going back to start in, so. But yeah, this needs to be gone great so far.

John Duggan (2:20)

For Leinster, Charlie O'Shea and Craig Casey, the halfback partnership, Tye Burn, captain in the team, Shane Daly, Josh Whitreley, Kieran Brooks, Finian Whitreley, Jaco Donoghue, Alex Kandellan and Gavin Coombs, all coming in to the starting 15

Ciara Kelly (2:33)

Do you think it's Leinster's game?

John Duggan (2:35)

Yes.

Ciara Kelly (2:36)

Well.

John Duggan (2:37)

But it's, look, there'll be plenty of people coming up for Leinster on Saturday night. It is the premier game in Irish rugby from a domestic point of view.

Ciara Kelly (2:44)

Yeah, for sure.

John Duggan (2:45)

Always worth going to, always good fun to go to and see it. Matt Hanson returning for Connacht. They play Zebra at the Dexcom Stadium tomorrow night. Jerry Kerr receives the nod at Loosehead. Ulster wait to the Bulls in South Africa. That's on Saturday. Tom Stewart, captain in the side from Hooker. Ireland call up Jamie Benson will wear the number 13 shirt.

Shane Coleman (3:04)

It feels very different from a Munster point of view to their famous win this time last year, doesn't it?

John Duggan (3:07)

It does, yeah. And look, there's a lot of change at Munster, obviously, behind the scenes at the moment, and we have to see how it's going to go for Clayton McMillan at all, but a good win last weekend.

Shane Coleman (3:19)

That's right, Eddie. Michael Carrick, staying in charge of Manchester United for now.

John Duggan (3:22)

You know that Spider-Man meme when the Spider-Man is pointing at the Spider-Man? It feels a bit like that at Manchester United. You're to blame. No, you're to blame for this mess.

So Michael Carrick, we know, was a really good player at the club, brought Manchester United to third in the Premier League last season as an interim boss, nothing got the deal permanently for two years and everything has gone back to the way it was in terms of the gloom. 4-1 defeat to Como initially in the Champions League last night. It is clear the club is rife with instability. They have no wins in seven games now, two wins from 11 this season. The captain Bruno Fernandes coming out publicly critical of Carrick's tactical approach after the game. This followed Alessandro Martinez's criticism of director of football Jason Wilcox last week.