Tadhg Furlong has lost his fitness battle and misses out for Leinster’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final against Toulon on Saturday (3pm).<\/p>\n
There are seven changes to the side that lost to Benetton in the URC last weekend, with Tom Clarkson replacing Furlong, who limped out of the match in Treviso with a leg injury.<\/p>\n
Hugo Keenan returns at full-back, while Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw form the centre partnership at Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n
Rieko Ioane, who started in the centre in Italy, moves to the left wing, with Tommy O’Brien on the other side. Jamison Gibson-Park and Harry Byrne are named in the half-backs.<\/p>\n
Loosehead Andrew Porter has been passed fit and packs down beside Dan Sheehan and Clarkson, with Joe McCarthy and James Ryan in the second row.<\/p>\n
Captain Caelan Doris remains at 8, with Jack Conan and Josh van der Flier on the flanks.<\/p>\n
There’s no place for Ciar\u00e1n Frawley in the 23 with Luke McGrath, Sam Prendergast and Jamie Osborne the replacement backs. James Lowe, who had returned to training after a groin injury, also misses out.<\/p>\n
The forward options are R\u00f3nan Kelleher, Jerry Cahir, Rabah Slimani, Alex Soroka and Scott Penny.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ben White gets the nod over Baptiste Serin to start at scrum-half for Toulon, while Charles Ollivon is deployed at openside. Prop Daniel Brennan, son of former Leinster player Trevor, is on the bench.<\/p>\n
The winners will play either champions Bordeaux-Begles or Bath, who meet on Sunday, in the final in Bilbao on 23 May.<\/p>\n
Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Rieko Ioane; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tom Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).<\/p>\n
Replacements: R\u00f3nan Kelleher, Jerry Cahir, Rabah Slimani, Alex Soroka, Scott Penny, Luke McGrath, Sam Prendergast, Jamie Osborne.<\/p>\n
Toulon: Melvyn Jaminet; Ga\u00ebl Drean, Nacho Brex, J\u00e9r\u00e9my Sinzelle, Seta Tuicuvu; Tomas Albornoz, Ben White; Jean-Baptiste Gros, Teddy Baubigny, Kyle Sinckler; Corentin Mezou, David Ribbans; Junior Kpoku, Charles Ollivon, Mikheil Shioshvili.<\/p>\n
Replacements: Gianmarco Lucchesi, Daniel Brennan, Beka Gigashvili, Matthias Halagahu, Zach Mercer, Baptiste Serin, Esteban Abadie, Mathis Ferte.<\/p>\n
Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n \n Follow our live blog on Leinster v Toulon in the Investec Champions Cup on Saturday from 3pm on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tadhg Furlong has lost his fitness battle and misses out for Leinster’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final against Toulon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-426975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}