{"id":311311,"date":"2025-12-12T03:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/311311\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T03:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:44:11","slug":"rieko-ioane-handed-first-start-in-much-changed-leinster-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/311311\/","title":{"rendered":"Rieko Ioane handed first start in much-changed Leinster side"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All Blacks<\/a> centre Rieko Ioane<\/a> will make his first start for Leinster<\/a> on Friday night against Leicester<\/a> Tigers in round two of the Investec Champions Cup<\/a> at Welford Road.<\/p>\n

Ioane is one of seven changes to the starting XV that defeated Harlequins<\/a> 45-28 in the opening round at the Aviva Stadium, four of which are in the backline.<\/p>\n

The centre combination has been changed completely for this contest, with Robbie Henshaw<\/a> partnering the Kiwi in midfield after Ciar\u00e1n Frawley and Garry Ringrose<\/a> started there last week.<\/p>\n

The injured Jordan Larmour<\/a> has been replaced by James Lowe<\/a> on the wing, while Harry Byrne<\/a> will start at fly-half this week, with Sam Prendergast<\/a> on the bench.<\/p>\n

Two of the three changes to the pack come in the front-row, with hookers R\u00f3nan Kelleher and Dan Sheehan<\/a> swapping, with Kelleher starting this week. Likewise, Tadhg Furlong<\/a> will start at tighthead in England\u2019s Midlands, with Thomas Clarkson<\/a> on the bench.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Investec Champions Cup<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leicester <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leinster <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The final change in the pack sees the return of James Ryan<\/a> to the starting XV in place of the injured RG Snyman.<\/p>\n

Leicester will be looking for their first win in the competition this season, having fallen to La Rochelle in the opening round.<\/p>\n

Leinster XV (caps in brackets)
15. Jimmy O\u2019Brien (108)
14. Tommy O\u2019Brien (50)
13. Rieko Ioane (1)
12. Robbie Henshaw (108)
11. James Lowe (94)
10. Harry Byrne (77)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park<\/a> (159)
1. Paddy McCarthy<\/a> (11)
2. R\u00f3nan Kelleher (82)
3. Tadhg Furlong (157)
4. Joe McCarthy<\/a> (51)
5. James Ryan (98)
6. Jack Conan<\/a> (167)
7. Josh van der Flier (161)
8. Caelan Doris<\/a> (95) (c)<\/p>\n

Replacements
16. Dan Sheehan (75)
17. Jack Boyle<\/a> (33)
18. Thomas Clarkson (64)
19. Diarmuid Mangan<\/a> (21)
20. Max Deegan<\/a> (142)
21. Luke McGrath<\/a> (240)
22. Sam Prendergast (38)
23. Ciar\u00e1n Frawley (109)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks centre Rieko Ioane will make his first start for Leinster on Friday night against Leicester Tigers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-311311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}