WE ARE finally getting to the important stage of our season, with plenty of competitive rugby on the horizon.
Having now won 23 on the bounce and scored more than 600 points since our last defeat – against Bristol on the first weekend of the Championship – there are some serious fixtures coming to Sixways, the first of which is Leinster A.
Alex Grove is the only survivor from our 38-23 defeat at the hands of Leinster in 2011 but this time I think the rugby Gods will be in our favour.
Dean Ryan has been very astute this season in many ways, but this fixture shows one of his cleverest moves. He has used around 40 players in the group stages of the B&I Cup, which means when we face the Pro 12 outfit on Friday night, we have a vast choice of first team, cup team and academy players to select from.
Leinster on the other hand, even though they do not have a first team game, have not used so many of their first team squad during the group stages and therefore have a ‘lesser’ pool of players to select from.
Don’t get me wrong, this will be a massive challenge, but being able to select the likes of Agustin Creevy, Mike Williams, Jonathan Thomas, GJ Van Velze, Sam Smith, Tom Biggs and Chris Pennell, Ryan has pulled off a masterstroke – tactically – yet again.
New signings Cooper Vuna and Sam Lewis will not be eligible for our bid to get to the final, which, should Bristol beat Doncaster, would set up a potential Championship Final dry run at Ashton Gate on the Easter weekend in April.
By Phill Mason