James Lowe's final dream will come true on Saturday as he will start in the Champions Cup final.
Lowe was a bystander in Bilbao a year ago as he was the loser in selection under the foreigner rule.
However scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park is not expected to return from a recent hamstring injury suffered in the PRO14 clash with Glasgow Warriors.
Instead it's likely that Gibson-Park will resume training next week ahead of the PRO14 semi-final with Munster.
That means Hugh O'Sullivan, with 14 caps and two starts for the province to his name, will be on standby on the bench for Luke McGrath.
“We’re hopeful that Jamison will train next week," said Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster. "I don’t think he’ll be available this week."
It also means that winger Lowe is thus guaranteed a start. The dangerous Kiwi made a big impact in the quarter-final victory last year over Saturday's final opponents, Saracens.
The province are boosted by the expected return of Sean Cronin, who injured his calf in the semi-final victory over Toulouse and had to come off in the first half.
“We’re optimistic," said Lancaster. "We haven’t trained yet, we’re going to do units today and then tomorrow he’ll take part in that and if it all goes well then he should be able to train properly on Thursday.
“Obviously we’ll wait for him. We’re definitely confident in him. We wouldn’t do it if we weren’t.”
Rhys Ruddock has also passed his return to play protocols after a head injury and is available, along with Andrew Porter, who will provide back up to Tadhg Furlong at tighthead.
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
