MATCH THREAD: Cardiff vs Leinster, Sat 10th Jan 2015 14:40, Cardiff Arms Park, SS1

After another poor display in the first half against Ulster last week Leinster came out and produced as good a 40 minutes of rugby as we've seen from them all season. Admittedly Ulster have had some serious issues themselves of late and did seem to fall off the pace somewhat in the last quarter, but there were plenty of positives in that half for the Leinster players and fans. Not least the performance of a back row with an average age of 22, led from the front by a fantastic performance from Conan. But a number of other players showed up well including Luke McGrath off the bench, Fitzgerald, McFadden and Dave Kearney. So the big question that is being asked now is whether or not a corner has been turned this season and will we see improvements from here on out.

Well this week may or may not give us a clue there. Leinster have rested a large portion of the squad that will likely face Castres in the RDS next week so with that in mind it will be hard to carry forward the performance from last week to this. Additionally Leinster are away from home on an unfamiliar synthetic surface. The good news is that although this Cardiff side appear a good side on paper, they don't have the results or the performances to reflect that. And while they have named a very strong side for this clash there can be no escaping that they are once again simply not living up to their potential at all. Something which is becoming the norm for this Welsh region.

This makes it really hard to preview the game. For example when you look at the back rows Cardiff should have a clear advantage. However Warburton in particular rarely delivers for them and so Leinster may well have the edge there if they can bring some real physicality to proceedings. Martin Moore returns from injury and straight into the starting XV so he'll need to hit the ground running and Denton will need to forget his last few experiences in the jersey (Munster, Ospreys and Treviso).

The most exciting element to the selection is the centre partnership of Reid and rugby league convert Ben Te'o. It will be incredibly interesting to see how both get on, however if it doesn't work hopefully people will realise that it's very early days. For Te'o particularly. Luke McGrath gets his first start since that diabolical Treviso game but should be full of confidence after a very good showing last week. It's about time we started looking beyond an out of form Boss so fingers crossed the young man can do the business. Leinster's back 3 is as strong as they've put out in a while too so hopefully the midfield can bring them into the game somewhat.

Even if this game turns out to be another poor performance that doesn't mean we haven't turned that corner. We'll only truly know that next week when we absolutely need to get a TBP win over Castres. But if we perform well tomorrow it would be a massively positive sign. Still though, given our away form and the difference in squad on paper I'm not confident. I'm going to back Cardiff on this one, by 6, and hope I'm wrong. After all what is it I read elsewhere today about Cardiff "great on paper, s**t on grass".