Familiarity breeds Leinster respect

Celtic League: A day of rest for Munster yesterday in a week of quick turn-around could be characterised as the calm before the RDS storm.

On Saturday Declan Kidney and his side travel to Dublin for their New Year's Eve tie with Leinster. And one suspects the importance of this clash lies as much with the bragging rights entailed in being Irish rugby's brand leader going into 2006 as with the Celtic League points to be garnered.

Provincial clashes tend to carry animosities as intense as family feuds. In this instance mutual familiarity as well as the hugely important question of one-upmanship just weeks away from an Irish team facing into a Six Nations Championship campaign should make the meeting a spicy affair. Four chillies at least.

While Munster will not name a team until later in the week, the likelihood is that captain Paul O'Connell will again lead a formidable pack with a frontrow eager to assert dominance.

As Munster looked wide against Connacht on Tuesday and revealed a personality different from the kick-to-the-corners style they often espouse, so too are Leinster determined not to be error strewn - or, as Shane Horgan describes it, "embarrassing". Conceding another five tries - as they did when these two last met - is not an option. That 33-9 defeat at Musgrave Park in early October is still a raw wound.

"I think the thing about Munster is that they have the ability to play a number of different types of game," said Horgan yesterday. "They're sometimes pigeon-holed as a team that only kicks to the corners, but as fellow professionals we know that is not the case at all.

"They just have the ability to do that very, very well. They also have a strong mauling game. There is no doubt we were on the receiving end of some expansive back play when we played them earlier in the season at Musgrave Park so we know the guys in their back line well. We play with them with Ireland and we know how damaging they can be.

"Recently I think they've got quite a strong balance. Munster, especially when they're playing against Leinster, always prepare for a very physical game. The forwards are certainly butting heads and the backs are no different at all. They have great tacklers and guys with big hearts."

O'Connell's rehabilitation, from a broken hand, has been just as important to Declan Kidney as Brian O'Driscoll's has been to Michael Cheika. The two players will bring more than just their own impressive athleticism to the game; both are captains and leaders, both uncompromising in the way they play.

"I think Paul O'Connell is an exceptionally important player but I think Munster have shown right through this campaign that they have adapted extremely well without him, and that's their strength," says Horgan. "Paul will make a big difference because he is absolutely a world-class player. That's just another edge they have to their game."

The traditional strength of Munster's forwards has always been their engine and for the last decade Reggie Corrigan has had to face it at least twice each season. In Jerry Flannery, who has been playing hooker in the absence of the injured Frankie Sheahan, Munster have recently unveiled an understudy who has been giving a good impression as the first pick.

"I expect the same as what I've expected for the last nine years," says Corrigan.

"It's going to be a real battle up front. And you've been hearing that for a while. But I think they've been actually developing a bit better as a frontrow partnership in the last year.

"John Hayes had been getting criticism in the past about scrummaging techniques and yet against the likes of (Andy) Sheridan in the Sale match I thought he was very strong and thought he did very well. Marcus (Horan) is obviously going well at the moment and is playing good rugby. But probably the most impressive of the lot of them is Flannery.

"He's a talent that has really come to the fore now. Frankie has been unfortunate with injury and has had to step aside for a while and I think Flannery is probably the one to watch more than any of them.

"He's very, very strong. He's fast. He really puts in good hits. I was in Lanzarote with him for a week there and you could see that he's a guy that is very focused on his training and wants to go a long way.

"He's very ambitious. I think there is a streak in him that says he's finally gotten his chance and he doesn't want to let it go too easily."

The match looks like being a sellout, although with over 10,000 tickets sold, there are still vantage points available - the RDS holds 13,5000.