Same again for Leinster against Treviso

Leinster are top of Pool 2 going into the last pool round of the Heineken Cup and they play Benetton Treviso who are second, the best an Italian team has done. As the only team with a full house of victories in the Heineken Cup, Leinster have already qualified for the semis and Treviso need lots of points from the match to do so. Leinster are clearly not taking the match lightly.

The Irish side, which played poorly against a dilapidated Bath side last weekend, need a get-out-of-gaol card to beat bath and want to make sure of a home semi-final.  They have chosen exactly the same starting XV and exactly the same replacements as played against Bath.

They will certainly looking for a far better effort from their tight forwards in particular. They were thrashed in the line-outs by Bath. They would want to do better against Treviso who include South African locks in Gerhard Klerck and Marco Wentzel and a strong front row in Gianluca Faliva, Fabio Ongaro and Salvatore Costanzo. Clearly Leinster need to hone their forward skills for the quarter-finals.

The Treviso side has been good enough to dispatch Bourgoin twice and Bath - a less damaged side than the one which played Leinster last weekend - once. But when the sides met in Treviso in Round 1, Leinster won 25-9, scoring three tries.

Teams
 
Leinster: 15 Girvan Dempsey, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 David Holwell, 9 Guy Easterby, 8 Victor Costello, 7 Shane Jennings,  6 Eric Miller, 5 Malcolm O' Kelly,  4 Leo Cullen,  3 Emmett Byrne , 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Reggie Corrigan (captain)
Replacements: 16 Ricky Nebbett, 17 David Blaney, 18 Ciaran Potts, 19 Aidan McCullen, 20 Brian O'Meara, 21 Filipe Contepomi, 22 Kieran Lewis 

Benetton Treviso: tbc

Date: Saturday, 15 January 2005
Kick-off: 17.15
Venue: Lansdowne Road, Dublin
Expected weather conditions: Chance of Rain with a high of 12°C, dropping to 7°C and a wind 32 km/h, dropping to 18 km/h
Referee: Eric Darrière (France)
Touch judges: David Rosich, Pascal Gauzere (both France)
Television match official: Gérald Borreani (France)
Match commissioner: Hugh Logan (Ireland)