Caution dictates as Munster rest Horan

Alan Gaffney has made just one change to the Munster team to face Treviso on Saturday (1.30 p.m. Irish time) in their Heineken European Cup match in Italy.

Prop Marcus Horan, who scored two of the Munster tries against Gloucester at Thomond Park last Saturday, has been left out.

The decision is more precautionary than forced and allows Gordon McIlwham to come in at loosehead to partner Frankie Sheahan and John Hayes in the front row. Simon Kerr comes onto the bench as replacement.

A win is clearly Munster's priority but getting a bonus point against a team that has already turned over the French club Bourgoin would position Munster strongly for the following weekend, when they play their final pool match against Bourgoin in Thomond Park.

Connacht, meanwhile, hoping to maintain impressive form, visit the south of France for the third time in seven weeks, for their European Challenge Cup quarter-final clash with Narbonne.

It's the third season in a row the sides have met in the competition, so there's a certain familiarity. Last season Connacht overturned a 15-point deficit from the first leg to go through 50-49 on aggregate. This week they go into the match with one change to the starting side and one change on the bench. Conor McPhillips returns to the left wing, and Ted Robinson is named among the replacements, while scrumhalf Conor O'Loughlin returns to the squad on the bench in place of Chris Keane as part of the rotation policy.

Coach Michael Bradley is pleased with how Connacht have dealt with their French challenges this season and is pleased they are away in the first leg.

"It suits us better to be playing away in the first leg," he said. "We'll know exactly what we have to do when Narbonne come to the Galway Sportsground the following Saturday and that just might make all the difference.

"We know them pretty well. You could say we are renewing old rivalries and at the moment it is all square. In 2001/2002 both Pool Four games went with home advantage, and it was the same in Round Two last season, Connacht going through to the quarter-finals with just a single-point advantage.

"The performances against Beziers and Pau, two big, physical sides, were most pleasing and our defence has been outstanding. You know when you go to France you are unlikely to see much of the ball and the work Mike Ford has done with us in that area has really paid off handsomely."

Saturday's game takes place at Parc des Sports et de l'Amitie in Narbonne (6.30 p.m. Irish time). The return leg takes place the following Saturday, January 31st, at the Sportsground in Galway with a 2 p.m. kick-off.

CONNACHT (v Narbonne): M McHugh; M Mostyn, D Yapp, T Allnutt (capt), C McPhillips; E Elwood, M Walls; D McFarland, B Jackman, A Clarke, D Browne, A Farley, M Swift, M Lacey, J O'Sullivan. Replacements: J Fogarty, W O'Kelly, M McCarthy, T Carter, C O'Loughlin, D Hewitt, T Robinson.

MUNSTER (v Treviso): S Payne; J Kelly, M Mullins, R Henderson, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; G McIlwham, F Sheahan, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, J Williams (capt), D Wallace, A Foley. Replacements: J Blaney, S Kerr, D Pusey, Keogh, E Reddan, J Staunton, J Holland.