By Dai
September 10 2003

Celtic Warriors coach Lynn Howells has named his starting fifteen to face the Leinster Lions at Sardis Road this Saturday. For all the latest team information read on.

Celtic Warriors coach Lynn Howells has named his side to face Leinster on Saturday at Sardis Road. Kevin Morgan makes his Warriors debut after coming through a 20 minute spell with Pontypridd last weekend and in another boost for Howells, Aisea Havili who was expected to be away with Tonga has returned to the squad due to financial problems. Havili decided not to join the squad after being told he would have to pay his own transport costs to get to the World Cup however fellow Tongan, Sililo Martens is joining the squad.

Two try scorer in the game against the Borders Shaun James has been demoted to the bench as Jon Bryant returns to fill the inside centre position whilst Paul John takes over from Martens at scrum half. Neil Jenkins has been named as one of two players who could fill the outside half position however Lee Thomas who was supposed to be playing for Pontypridd against Pontypool is understood to be carrying an injury and so the likelihood is that Jenkins will start.

In the forwards, Nick Kelly and Richard Parks form a new back row combination with captain Richard Bryan. Parks has been with the Wales squad all summer and will be making his Warriors debut whilst Kelly, who scored a late try against the Borders after coming on as a substitute makes his first start and as a result Cory Harris and Ryan Jones both drop to the bench.

On the bench Howells has had to overcome a number of problems as he only has one fit hooker in Andrew Joy. Matthew Rees has been absent for a couple of months through injury and Dwayne Goodfield took a knock in the match against the Borders which rules him out. Howells would normally have the luxury of calling on hookers from Bridgend and Pontypridd's squads but unfortunately for him both of Pontypridd's hookers picked up serious injuries in last Saturdays game against Ebbw Vale and as a result he will probably call up Leighton Phillips who was with Pontypridd towards the end of last season for bench cover. Phillips is set to play for Pontypridd tonight against Pontypool along with another Warrior Matthew Nuthall who will probably occupy the centre position for Pontypridd due to their injury problems.

Meanwhile, just like Howells, the opposition coach Gary Ella has World Cup call ups preventing him from picking his strongest squad. None of the Irish squad members feature in the match and Ella has named a 25 man squad which will be used to select the starting fifteen for Saturdays encounter.

Celtic Warriors (starting 15): K Morgan; G Wyatt, D Bishop, J Bryant, A Havili; N Jenkins or L Thomas, P John; P Booth, A Joy, C Horsman, N Budgett, D Jones, N Kelly, R Bryan (capt), R Parks.
Substitutes: , M Jones, R Jones, C Harris,  S James, G Cull, AN Other, AN Other

Leinster Lions (squad): Brian O'Meara, Matthew Leek, Brian O'Riordan, Brendan Burke, David Quinlan, Kieran Lewis, John McWeeney Christian Warner, James Downey, Gary Brown, James Norton, John Lyne, Gavin Hickie, David Blaney,Brian Blaney, Emmett Byrne, Niall Treston, Peter Coyle, Leo Cullen (capt), Ben Gissing, Aidan Kearney, Niall Breslin, Aidan McCullen, Shane Jennings, Des Dillon.