Leinster coach Michael Cheika says his Leinster side are looking forward to Saturday's Heineken Cup crunch clash with London Wasps at Twickenham.

"Now that the game is here, you can feel the energy. Bernard (Jackman) participated in training on Monday and we're confident that he will be available for selection. CJ (van der Linde) didn't train yesterday but we'll wait and see.

"We have had a plan, since the week off before the Ulster game, on how we wanted to bring players back into the team and we feel that we're pretty well on track for that.

"The players who are not in the starting XV still have a major role to play in terms of making an impact and finishing games off. The form of some players has put pressure on others, and I'm still hopeful that (Shane) Jennings will have an opportunity to play because we'll be appealing that decision tomorrow."

Isa Nacewa or Felipe Contepomi at out-half? Gordon D'Arcy to rejoin Brian O'Driscoll in the centre? Will Girvan Dempsey start at 15? And, if so, who then to slip from the back three?

Cheika may be sitting on the horns of a dilemma but he's not squirming.

"It's difficult," he said, referring to Friday's High Noon selection deadline.

"We understand the strengths of all our players in the squad. Tailoring to our game-plan, we will then select the team. We're going to try to use our different talents to impact changes and that's something that we're very mindful of.

"I've got a lot of belief in the team. I always have done. I'm not naive and I know that we have needed to play better (recently), but we're aware that we're playing against very different forces. We have gained a lot more self belief and you could see that in the body language at the end of the Cardiff game. A lot of our guys have had some good moments in Twickenham at international level for Ireland, but this weekend it's all about the final product that we produce on the day."

"Since that week off and we came back to play Ulster, we've had a plan, after estimating when we'd get players back from injury, with an idea of what we were looking to play in this match.

"And then obviously letting form take its toll during those three matches. We feel we're pretty well on track for that. Even though it's going to be a difficult selection, we feel that we've fulfilled what we needed to see over the last three weeks according to the plan we've had in place.

"But the players that don't get selected in the starting 15 are still going to have a major role to play, because it's such a huge game. And we've seen it with Leinster this year, probably for the first time ever, that our reserve bench has been really able to come on and win us games and finish games off for us. That's something that we're also mindful of because we know it's going to be a tight match."

Cheika asserted that recent form will influence his decision. "In a few positions, yeah, I would say so. Some form has put pressures on certain players who maybe had starting spots before, and that's a good thing for us."

That may mean Contepomi reverting to his favoured out-half position for the province and reuniting his pivotal relationship with a revitalised 'Darce/Drico' combo, although Cheika refused to be drawn, even when the otherwise dashing Nacewa's rickety kicking game was mentioned.