Sport

First visit by a Scottish side won't be a successful one

Munster v Glasgow: Munster seek to return to winning ways after their sequence of 10 league wins in a row came to a largely …

Sat Feb 19 2005 - 00:00

Munster v Glasgow: Munster seek to return to winning ways after their sequence of 10 league wins in a row came to a largely self-inflicted halt in their most recent outing away to Llanelli.

The Ospreys' draw away to their opponents tomorrow on the same weekend kept the door ajar slightly, as Munster trail the Welsh outfit by seven points, but still have a game in hand.

"If we happen to win our last six games we only need one favour for the Ospreys to slip up once and we still have a chance of winning the league," said coach Alan Gaffney yesterday. "The odds are against us, but we haven't given up hope and we'll have a crack at it."

Munster are unbeaten at home this season in 10 games in both competitions, and haven't lost at Thomond Park since the Newport Gwent Dragons were the visitors in March 2004.

READ MORE

Glasgow, who become the first Scottish side to play in Limerick, are attempting to end a run of five matches without a win and have lost their last eight away matches since they beat the Borders at Melrose in September.

Furthermore, Glasgow haven't won in Ireland since they beat Connacht in Galway in the Celtic League quarter-final in December 2001, and have lost their three previous meetings with Munster, the most recent being a 28-26 thriller at Hughenden in October by dint of a drop goal with the last kick of the game by Ronan O'Gara when Munster restarted with just 30 seconds left on the clock.

Without Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, John Hayes, Paul O'Connell, and Anthony Foley, as well as the injured David Pusey and Mossy Lawlor, Munster can at last call up last week's trio of Irish replacements in Murrayfield, Marcus Horan, Frank Sheahan and Donncha O'Callaghan.

With Alan Quinlan and Denis Leamy having missed the cut for the Scotland, it is a particularly mobile indigenous back row of internationals with David Wallace at number eight, while this game also marks the return of John Kelly for his first Munster start since October.

MUNSTER: S Payne; J Kelly, J Storey, J Holland, A Horgan; P Burke, E Reddan; M Horan, F Sheahan, G McIlwham; T Hogan, D O'Callaghan; A Quinlan, D Leamy, D Wallace. Replacements: E McGovern, J Flannery, T Bowman, J Williams, M Prendergast, R Henderson, P Devlin.

GLASGOW: To be announced.

REFEREE: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa).

PREVIOUS MEETINGS: (03-04) (CC) Glasgow 18 Munster 14; (CL) Munster 26 Glasgow 10; (CL) Glasgow 12 Munster 37. (04-05) (CL) Glasgow 26 Munster 28.

FORMGUIDE: Munster - WWWWL. Glasgow - LWLLD.

LEADING TRY SCORERS: Munster - Christian Cullen 8, Shaun Payne 4. Glasgow - Kenny Logan 5, Donnie Macfadyen 4.

Leading points scorers: Munster - Paul Burke 92. Glasgow - Calvin Howarth 112, Dan Parks 107.

FORECAST: Munster to win.