Big Irish crowd awaits Glasgow in Dublin

MORE than 14,000 tickets have been sold for tonight's Magners League clash between leaders Leinster and Glasgow at the RDS.

The encounter provides a tasty appetiser to the Ireland-Scotland international weekend and will see veteran lock Malcolm O'Kelly make his 180th appearance for the province. Leinster will be captained by hooker Bernard Jackman and he said: "Glasgow are a side who always put it up to you. Scottish sides sometimes don't get the respect that they deserve yet themselves and Edinburgh are right up on the top end of the Magners League table, but we know all about the threats that they can pose. The Warriors are a tough team to beat and they drew in Connacht, which was no mean feat because we know how hard it can be to go down to the Sportsground and win. They could have even won that game.

"They have a very good kicking game, but we have a done a lot of scouting on them recently. They, like ourselves, will be missing a few players with Saturday's international game coming up, but they have strong quality backs and a physical pack of forwards who can dominate you if you don't bring your A game."

Leinster: G Dempsey; S Keogh, E O'Malley, F McFadden, I Nacewa; S Berne, P O'Donohoe; CJ van der Linde, B Jackman (capt), M Ross, D Toner, M O'Kelly, K McLaughlin, S Keogh, P Ryan. Subs: R Strauss, S Wright, T Hogan, E Sheriff, C Keane, I Madigan, M Keating.

Glasgow: B Stortoni; H O'Hare, P Murchie, P Horne, DTH van der Merwe; R Jackson, M McMillan (capt); J Welsh, D Hall, E Kalman, T Barker, D Turner, J Eddie, R Vernon, C Forrester. Subs: F Thomson, M Low, R Harley (West of Scotland), C Fusaro (Heriot's), C Gregor, D McCall, C Kinloch.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).