MUNSTER HAVE shot out of the blocks winning their first two matches and scored over 20 points in each. But prior to this weekend, the unsympathetic league table has them in fourth place behind Cardiff, Ospreys and Ulster. While it’s early in the campaign with their Irish rump in New Zealand, last season’s champions might now, in mid September, even start thinking about bonus points.
Rotating again Tony McGahan makes five changes to last week’s winning side, two of them forced. Damien Varley joins the overseas troops as Jerry Flannery sadly limps from World Cup action, while Danny Barnes has a hand injury that sidelines him for this one. Tom Gleeson fills that outside centre hole.
Mike Sherry and Marcus Horan come into the frontrow with lock Dave Foley making his first competitive start alongside the seasoned Mick O’Driscoll.
Munster have 12 consecutive home wins and are building something of a fortress mentality, while Llanelli arrive having lost to Connacht last week in Galway and on 11 previous occasions to Munster.
It’s difficult to find positives in that but the Welsh side have a lot of optimistic young players, especially in the back line. They lack some cohesion and communication but there is plenty of talent and Munster will be aware that a number of them will be out to impress.
As usual and especially against a top outfit like Munster the forwards will shape the game. While Llanelli have Wales Under-20 hooker Kirby Myhill in the frontrow, they do have an experienced and unchanged backrow of Ben Morgan, Josh Turnbull and Rob McCusker.
“We have to go to Munster with confidence that we can play and win this game,” said Llanelli coach Nigel Davies. “We’ve shown we are competitive and all our recent games against them have been tight. They have a great belief and mental attitude that they can close out games and that is something we have focused on and will need to bring to get a result.”
MUNSTER: J Murphy; D Howlett, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley; I Keatley, P Stringer; M Horan, M Sherry, J Hayes; D Foley, M O’Driscoll; P O’Mahony (c), N Ronan, J Coughlan. Replacements: D Fogarty, W du Preez, BJ Botha, B Holland, T O’Donnell, D Williams, S Deasy, S Zebo.
LLANELLI: D Ford; L Williams, R Gomer Davies, G Maule, A Fenby; D Newton, R Tipuna; I Thomas (c), K Myhill, R Thomas, L Reed, D Day, R McCusker, J Turnbull, B Morgan. Replacements: E Phillips, P John, R Jones, A Shingler, J Edwards, G Davies, A Thomas, L Rees.
Referee: A Macpherson (SRU).
Verdict: Munster win.
