Heres Johnny-Sexton Returns To Leinster Team

The Leinster team to face Edinburgh in Friday night’s Magners League clash at Murrayfield  has been named.

Rob Kearney will make his 100^th Leinster appearance on Friday and the Cooley man will become the 17^th Leinster player to reach the landmark feat.

Sexton Returns From Injury

Kearney is named in a backline which features seven Ireland internationals including Brian O’Driscoll and Jonathan Sexton, who makes his first appearance this season.

In the pack, skipper Shane Jennings forms a back-row partnership with Dominic Ryan and Stephen Keogh who starts at number eight, while second-row Devin Toner also makes his seasonal debut.

Isaac Boss, Jamie Heaslip and Cian Healy are all named amongst the replacements.

Speaking ahead of Friday night’s Magners League clash in Edinburgh, Leinster Coach Joe Schmidt said:

“It will be a tough trip to Edinburgh because they haven’t had a win yet and they’ll be desperate to (do so). They’re a good side with quality right across the board.

“As was demonstrated last week against Treviso, all teams have their quality and if you’re not accurate enough on the night then all of the games will tend to be in the balance. We were disappointed that we didn’t create a great platform to play from, particularly in the conditions which were consistent rain throughout.

“Our defence was something else for us to improve on and we didn’t quite dominate them in the collisions.”

LEINSTER:

15: Rob Kearney
14: Shane Horgan
13: Brian O’Driscoll
12: Gordon D’Arcy
11: Luke Fitzgerald
10: Jonathan Sexton
9: Eoin Reddan

1: Heinke van der Merwe
2: Richardt Strauss
3: Mike Ross
4: Ed O’Donoghue
5: Devin Toner
6: Dominic Ryan
7: Shane Jennings CAPTAIN
8: Stephen Keogh

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Jason Harris-Wright
17: Cian Healy
18: Simon Shawe
19: Mariano Galarza
20: Jamie Heaslip
21: Isaac Boss
22: Isa Nacewa
23: Eoin O’Malley

REFEREE:Tim Hayes (WRU), ASSISTANT REFEREES: Iain Heard, Bob Nevans (both SRU), TMO: Ian Ramage (SRU)

Daniel "Pitchside" Pitcher Twitter: @DanFM104Sport About: Dan "Pitchside" Pitcher provides insight and commentary as the chief soccer and rugby correspondent for Sportspeak.