Danny Wilson and his Cardiff Blues have been given a flattering introduction by Leinster, who hope to give them a battering in Dublin on Friday night.
The Blues were left numb after their Guinness Pro 14 opening 20-10 home defeat to Edinburgh last week, which prompted head coach Wilson to wield the axe and make six changes.
Only Friday, Wilson also agreed to send Wales prop Scott Andrews out on loan to Bath for the next month.
But that has not stopped Leinster coach Leo Cullen from giving the Blues the big build-up in a game they intend to celebrate with victory the 200th appearance for the province of Ireland lock Devon Toner.
“We look back at our two games against them (Blues) last year, and they were two really, really close games,” head coach Cullen said.
“We saw a bit of their game against Exeter in pre-season, just a week before their opener, and they had a really impressive win and performance in that game.
“They’re a well-coached team with Danny Wilson, who’s done a good job there. They have a lot of threats across their team; a lot of very, very dangerous, good attackers. We tried to prepare as best as we possibly could.
“They’ve obviously got a bit of an advantage in that they had an extra day’s recovery from last week, an extra day’s preparation. For us, it’s been a pretty short week.”
Wilson has ripped up the team that lost last week, although in part his changes were prompted by injury.
In the forwards, Keiron Assiratti replaces veteran tighthead prop Taufa’ao Filise, who is out with a knee injury, while Macauley Cook comes in on the blindside in place of Nick Williams (concussion), with Josh Turnbull switching to No 8.
Further changes see Rhun Williams replace Matthew Morgan at full-back, centre Willis Halaholo drop out of the matchday 23 altogether for 22-year-old Garyn Smith,
Tom James comes in onto the left wing in place of Aled Summerhill, while Steve Shingler starts over Jarrod Evans at fly-half.
Of Andrews’ move, Wilson said: “This is a good opportunity to give Scott game-time at a high level with Bath, while we expose two young, promising props in Keiron Assiratti and Dillon Lewis.”
But he also admitted: “The Edinburgh performance didn’t look any better on Monday, but hopefully it is a quick fix.
“We have done some pretty physical contact work this week to put it right because it’s not like us.
“A week before we were extremely physical against a big Exeter side but we didn’t see that same edge and presence against Edinburgh.
Within the Leinster pack Cullen had made three changes as Jack Conan comes in at No 8, Rhys Ruddock on the blindside and James Tracy at hooker, with Max Deegan, Dan Leavy, and Sean Cronin all dropping out; Deegan out of the squad and Leavy and Cronin to the bench.
In the backs, the introduction of Luke McGrath is the only change to the side that put the Dragons to the sword at Rodney Parade last week as he replaces Jamison Gibson-Park at scrum-half.
Leinster confirmed that Dave Kearney and Jordi Murphy would not be risked due to a tight groin and knee knock respectively, while Fergus McFadden (calf), James Ryan (shoulder) and Joey Carbery (calf) had all failed to fully recover in time for selection.
