First senior start for Mangan, with six Kildare players set for URC action this weekend
Ciarán Mangan is set for his first senior start this weekend as Leinster host Edinburgh in the URC. Photo: INPHO/Tom Maher
This weekend sees the final round of URC fixtures before the Six Nations gets underway next week, and a total of six Kildare players have been selected for their respective provinces.
With Tadhg Beirne and Jeremy Loughman both in Ireland camp, the only remaining Kildare man available to Munster is Diarmuid Kilgallen.
The Eadestown town winger returns to the starting XV where he will come up against the 15-times capped Scottish international, Kyle Rowe.
Despite just five points separating the two teams, Clayton McMillan's Munster side have their work cut out for them away to the league leaders, with Glasgow coming into the match on the back of an eight-game winning streak.
Despite captain, Cian Prendergast, and front-row sensation, Billy Bohan, both in Ireland camp ahead of the Six Nations, Connacht have continued their trend of naming a Kildare man in every one of their matchday squads since September.
Newbridge's Jordan Duggan had become Stuart Lancaster's first-choice loosehead prop, only to be leapfrogged by Bohan after suffering an injury over Christmas. Duggan will be left to wonder what might have been, with Bohan's form at Connacht seeing him rewarded with a place in Ireland's Six Nations squad.
But with the way Irish props have been falling like flies as of late, a big performance from Duggan could see him propelled up to the next in line should Milne or Loughman go down over the next few weeks.
The Western province are in dire need of a win, and despite the lengthy list of absentees, Head Coach Lancaster will nevertheless be hoping his side can get over the line away to the team currently bottom of the URC.
Leinster are without a number of Kildare men for this game, with Sam Prendergast and Jamie Osborne off with Ireland and Jimmy O'Brien on the injury list, yet they have named four players from the county in their team, with three in from the start and another one among the replacements.
The big news is that Ciaran Mangan from Sallins is set to make his first senior competitive start, with just one appearance off the bench under his belt.
With Leinster missing close to 20 players through international duty and injury, Leo Cullen will be looking to Max Deegan, Scott Penny and RG Snyman for leadership in the pack, while Mangan has significant experience beside him in the centre in the form of All Black Rieko Ioane.
Ciaran's elder brother, Diarmuid, will add another string to his bow when he starts at number eight for Leinster for the very first time ahead of linking up with the Ireland XV squad that will play England 'A' next week.
One surprise omission from that Ireland XV squad was Andrew Osborne; the Naas man needs a big game having fallen down the pecking order, for now at least, behind the likes of Joshua Kenny, who starts for Leinster on the wing alongside Osborne this weekend, as well as Ulster's Zac Ward.
The final Kildare man on the team sheet is Will Connors, who provides back-row cover on the bench. With his move to Connacht now confirmed, there may not be many more Leinster caps in Connors' future.
Leinster come into the game in the midst of a ten-game winning streak that has seen them climb all the way up to third place, while Edinburgh lie ninth.
