Leinster will hope to restore some pride to their season on Saturday evening, when they host the Lions in the URC quarter-final.

It comes just a week after Leinster’s damaging defeat to Bordeaux-Begles in the Champions Cup final, their fourth final defeat in five years.

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There was little argument that Leinster were rolled over by the far better team, with Bordeaux racing into a 35-7 lead by half-time.

However, they did at least bring a (slightly) more respectable appearance to the scoreboard in the second half, eventually losing out 41-19.

One of the most impressive Leinster performers in that second half was Ciarán Frawley, who replaced an out-of-sorts Harry Byrne at fly-half and began pulling the strings.

Frawley will leave Leinster at the end of the season, signing for interprovincial rivals Connacht. However, his performance in Bilbao had led many to call for him to start this weekend’s URC quarter-final.

Instead, Frawley has been dropped from the 23 entirely, with Sam Prendergast named to start at 10 and Byrne on the bench.

𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙤𝙛𝙛 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 👊

💥 Here is your Leinster team to take on @LionsRugbyCo in this Saturday’s @URCOfficial quarter-final

🎟️ Get your tickets here: https://t.co/OkASrXKVi1

📰 Full team news: https://t.co/ERXo8fYRLK#LEIvLIO #NeverLessThanEverything pic.twitter.com/BR4R5HDX2v

— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) May 28, 2026

Whatever about giving Prendergast a start, the decision to omit Frawley entirely is a very strange call, even if squad rotation for URC games is a regular occurrence for Leinster.

At his squad announcement press conference on Thursday, head coach Leo Cullen attempted to explain the decision to omit the fully fit Frawley from the matchday 23.

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Leo Cullen explains strange Frawley call

Leo Cullen confirmed on Thursday that the decision to omit Ciarán Frawley from the squad for this weekend’s clash against the Lions was a purely sporting one, with the fly-half fully fit.

Despite Frawley’s impressive showing in Bilbao, Cullen said the coaching staff had opted to give an out-of-favour Sam Prendergast his chance.

He was okay. It’s similar to other guys, we’re trying to make good choices for the group here.

It’s always a balance. And we’re lucky with the guys that we have there. And Sam, as you know, he’s a super talented young man. And we want to keep giving the guy opportunities. I think you’ve seen it. Even though he’s 23 years of age, he has multiple Irish caps under his belt already.

It’s not just us as coaches here who think that the guy has an unbelievable amount of potential. It’s the Irish coaches as well. We all want to see him progress.

So, we need to keep giving him these opportunities. It’s a great opportunity for him this week. He’s been unlucky in terms of missing out on selection last week.

Listen, he’s played in lots of big games over the last couple of seasons, and we just want to see all our young players, and some days go great, some days there’s always things to work on, isn’t there?

We all need to get behind Sam because we see him as a huge part of the future of not just Leinster, but Irish rugby as well.

It’s a brave vote of confidence in Prendergast, and Leinster will hope it does not backfire when they host the Lions on Saturday evening.

Kick-off at the Aviva Stadium is at 8pm.

Leinster team to face the Lions: 15 Hugo Keenan; 14 Jimmy O’Brien, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jamie Osborne, 11 James Lowe; 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Luke McGrath; 1 Andrew Porter, 2 Dan Sheehan, 3 Tadhg Furlong; 4 Joe McCarthy, 5 James Ryan; 6 Max Deegan, 7 Scott Penny, 8 Caelan Doris (captain)

Leinster replacements: 16 Gus McCarthy, 17 Alex Usanov, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Diarmuid Mangan, 20 Josh van der Flier, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Robbie Henshaw

SEE ALSO: “Something Needs To Change” – Dallaglio’s Damning Verdict of Leinsters Latest Cup Final Loss