Brive and Leinster were both losers in round one. Another defeat could sound goodnight – and that was certainly not in the pre-season plans of either side.

Brive have returned to the competition they won in 1997 with a positive approach, but they couldn’t breach the Scarlets line last Saturday and had to rely on the boot of Andy Goode. His four penalties were not enough as the Scarlets managed to score two tries and keep the home fans happy.

The same could not be said for the supporters at the RDS. They would have gone home bemused as to how the Heineken champions failed to beat London Irish.

Leinster began at pace and had opened up a three point lead within seconds of the kick off. But, 80 minutes later and that three point lead had reversed to a three point deficit and what could prove to be a costly loss.

And Leinster squad to face for the Heineken Cup Pool 6 encounter in the Stade Municipal, Brive (KO: 4.45pm local time, 3.45pm Irish) has been named.

This will be the first meeting between the two sides and Leinster have named a strong squad with the province’s leading tournament try scorer Brian O’Driscoll (25 tries) one of 13 Ireland internationals in the extended panel for the trip to France which includes Shane Horgan who made his record 71st Heineken Cup appearance in the London Irish game last weekend.

Horgan is now two caps ahead of Malcolm O’Kelly (69) and six ahead of Girvan Dempsey (65) in the all-time European appearance list for the province.

Nathan Hines is also included after making his home Heineken Cup debut for the province alongside Mike Ross, Eoin Reddan and Kevin McLaughlin.

Over 500 Leinster supporters will make the trip to Brive this weekend,  the team is expected to be named on Friday lunchtime.

Leinster squad to face Brive:
FORWARDS: Leo Cullen, John Fogarty, Cian Healy, Jamie Heaslip, Nathan Hines, Bernard Jackman, Shane Jennings, Stephen Keogh, Ronan McCormack, Kevin McLaughlin, Malcolm O’Kelly, Sean O’Brien, Mike Ross, Devin Toner, CJ van der Linde

BACKS: Shaun Berne, Gordon D’Arcy, Girvan Dempsey, Luke Fitzgerald, Shane Horgan, Chris Keane, Rob Kearney, Simon Keogh, Fergus McFadden, Isa Nacewa, Brian O’Driscoll, Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton