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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Jon Doel

Cardiff Rugby v Leinster team news as Wales star starts after recovering from injury

Wales international James Botham is fit to start for Cardiff Rugby against Irish giants Leinster on Saturday night (7.35pm).

It gives the back rower an opportunity to force his way into Wayne Pivac's Six Nations squad after initially being left out earlier this month.

Botham, who sustained a nasty head injury during the loss at Edinburgh a few weeks ago, starts at number eight.

The incident saw the match halted for several minutes after a head-on-head collision.

There are seven changes to the Cardiff side in total, with a number of players now in the Wales camp. They can, however, still field 14 internationals.

Lloyd Williams and Jarrod Evans form a strong half-back partnership, with Ben Thomas and Rey Lee-Lo in midfield.

Props Dillon Lewis and Rhys Carre, who have been released from Wales' Six Nations squad this weekend, are on the bench.

Cardiff coach Dai Young said: "We're struggling to get any momentum at the minute. It will be interesting to see where we are this weekend on the back of not playing.

"One thing it does is focus the mind on playing against Leinster.

"It will be a real good challenge for us and something that we've talked about as a squad.

"There's a big onus, over the next month or so, to get results because we're only as strong as every performance and whether we've got internationals involved or not."

Leinster are without a raft of Ireland internationals but still field a team that contains the likes of Luke Mcgrath and Rhys Ruddock.

Cardiff: Amos; Lane, Lee-Lo, Thomas, Summerhill; Evans, L Williams; Domachowski, Myhill, Arhip, Turnbull (capt), Thornton, Lewis-Hughes, Boyde, Botham.

Replacements: Daniel, Carre, Lewis, T Williams, Moore, Hill, Llewellyn, Smith.

Leinster: J O'Brien; A Byrne, Osborne, Frawley, O'Loughlin; R Byrne, McGrath (capt); E Byrne, S Cronin, Ala'alatoa, Toner, J McCarthy, Ruddock, Connors, Penny.

Replacements: Tracy, Dooley, Abdaladze, Molony, Deegan, N McCarthy, H Byrne, T O'Brien.

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