DRAGONS v THE BORDERS
At Rodney Parade, 7.05pm live on BBC Wales
Referee: Donal Courtney (IRFU)
Newport Gwent Dragons have welcomed Ian Gough, Hal Luscombe and Luke Charteris back in to the squad for Friday night. However Ceri Sweeney is involved in the Tsunami Rugby Aid match at Twickenham on Saturday whilst Gareth Cooper, Michael Owen and Kevin Morgan have not been released from the Welsh squad. Hawick and Scotland U21 centre Garry Law has been brought into The Borders team to face The Dragons.
“This is an ideal opportunity to see what Garry can do. We’re at the stage in the year when we’re looking towards next season” said head coach Steve Bates.
Dragons Team: Percy Montgomery. Gareth Wyatt, Sione Tuipulotu, Steve Winn, Ben Breeze, Craig Warlow, Gareth Baber, Adam Black, James Richards, Rhys Thomas, Ian Gough, Peter Sidoli, Jamie Ringer, Jason Forster (c), Rhys Oakley
Replacements: Gethin Robinson, Rod Snow, Chris Anthony, Luke Charteris, Matthew Veater, James Ireland, Jon Bryant
Borders Team: 15 Stuart Moffat; 14 Simon Danielli, 13 Calum MacRae, 12 Garry Law, 11 Nikki Walker; 10 Charlie Hore, 9 Johnny Weston; 1 Tom McGee, 2 Ross Ford, 3 Bruce Douglas (captain); 4 Mark Blair, 5 Colin Stewart; 6 John Dalziel, 7 Wayne McEntee, 8 Kelly Brown
Replacements: 16 Steve Scott, 17 Geoff Cross, 18 Will Kay, 19 Andy Miller, 20 Alistair Warnock, 21 Alistair Dickson, 22 Gareth Morton
Saturday 5 March 2005
BLUES v MUNSTER
At the Arms Park, 5.30pm live on S4C
Referee: Mike Hall (SRU)
Craig Quinnell will lead the Blues against Munster, the task will be more difficult after a spate of injuries has left coach David Young with no option other than to delay a final decision on the starting line-up behind the scrum. Nick Walne and Shaun James both have shoulder injuries, Rhys Williams has picked up a leg strain training with Wales and Fereti Tuilagi and Jonny Bryant are no longer part of the squad.
Nick Robinson is suffering from a dead leg and is rated as having only a 50-50 chance of being available. Two of the Cardiff Premier Division backs, Chris Czekaj and Dafydd Hewitt, have been added to the squad that will have a run-out on Friday morning. Young has settled on the forwards’ combination; Martin Jones will play at loose-head prop and another Premier Division player, Nathan Llewellyn, will cover him from the replacements’ bench.
The backs will be chosen from: Craig Morgan, Dean Dewdney, Tristan Davies, Dafydd Hewitt, Lee Thomas, Jonny Vaughton, Chris Czekaj, Nick Macleod, Nick Robinson, Ryan Powell, Richard Smith. The forwards are: Martin Jones, Gareth Williams, Ben Evans, Craig Quinnell(captain), Deiniol Jones, Maama Molitika, Kort Schubert, Robin Sowden-Taylor.
The forward replacements will be: Nathan Llewellyn, Rhys Thomas, James Goode, Nathan Thomas.
Munster coach Alan Gaffney makes five changes, from the side that started against Glasgow, Shaun Payne Rob Henderson and Mike Prendergast return to the starting line up in the backs while up front Tom Bowman replaces the unavailable Donncha O’Callaghan in the second row and Stephen Keogh comes into the back-row for his first start since the game against Connacht on December 27th.
Munster Team: C Cullen; J Kelly, S Payne, R Henderson, A Horgan; P Burke, M Prendergast; M Horan, F Sheahan, G McIlwham; T Bowman, T Hogan; J Williams, D Wallace, S Keogh. Replacements: F Roche, J Flannery, T Hayes, A Quinlan, E Reddan, J Holland, P Devlin.
Sunday 6 March 2005
LEINSTER v OSPREYS
At Donnybrook, 4.45pm live on Setanta Sports & S4C
Referee: Andy Ireland (SRU)
Both teams to be announced
Bye Week – SCARLETS
