Rugby Celtic League - Leinster v Munster: Here we go again. Leinster versus Munster, personal head-to-heads across the pitch, some temporary bragging rights and a whiff of cordite in the air, albeit offering only a modicum of revenge for Leinster. Oh, and with the sides languishing seventh and ninth in the table, the minor matter of Magners Celtic League points at stake.
All against the backdrop of the competition's record attendance. You could hardly tire of these two bumping into each other.
Leinster have never lost a Celtic League game at Lansdowne Road and in body, if not in form, look in better shape than their rivals.
With last week's replacement cameos under their belts, Malcolm O'Kelly and Gordon D'Arcy make their first starts of the season, leaving coach Michael Cheika with virtually a full deck to deal from given Cameron Jowitt reappears on the bench.
Owen Finegan thus becomes one of three vastly experienced test campaigners on the bench, where he is joined by precocious Luke Fitzgerald, which means no room for Robert Kearney in the 22, or for Bernard Jackman either, as Brian Blaney returns to the squad.
What Munster would give for such backline strength in depth! By contrast, their outside three has a threadbare look with Shaun Payne's bruised hip rendering him hors de combat along with Anthony Horgan and Christian Cullen.
Horgan sees a specialist today and may have to undergo surgery on a knee cartilage, though his estimated absence is four to six weeks, while Cullen has another scan on his shoulder injury today.
In their stead, back-up outhalf Jeremy Manning fills in at fullback, while back-up scrumhalf Tomás O'Leary is on the wing. It looks a bigger ask for Manning, especially in defence or under the high ball, whereas the nippy, elusive O'Leary has looked more at ease in his appearances on the wing.
The only backs on the bench are Brian O'Meara and Barry Murphy, back for his first appearance since that horrific injury in Ravenhill on March 3rd when sustaining dislocated and torn ankle ligaments.
Significantly though, Frankie Sheahan returns, which should go a long way toward reasserting Munster's traditional excellence at lineout time; unless John Hayes's absence is the most important factor of all.
Denis Leamy has to be content with a place on the bench after the old Alan Quinlan-Anthony Foley-David Wallace axis put their marker down against Ulster last weekend. Quinlan, in particular, came up with a number of big plays.
Cheika was suitably impressed by Munster's performance in beating Ulster last Saturday, effectively in their first outing at near to full strength.
"One to 10 is the Irish team there or thereabouts; they're a quality outfit," he said. "You don't become the champions of Europe for nothing and we've got to go out there and challenge that.
"We'll have a structure and a strategy that we want to play, that we think will be effective in the game, and we'll be looking to do our best to inflict or impose that upon them. Not easy."
Whether O'Kelly's return can galvanise the Leinster lineout is moot. Misfiring, be it through missed throws or system failures, has been a recurring theme with them this season and was as bad as ever in Galway last Friday. If Munster's defensive lineout, which should be even more proficient with Quinlan back in the fold, eats into the Harry Vermaas throw, the Munster pack begin mauling off their own ball, get their backrowers, Paul O'Connell and co rumbling, launch Trevor Halstead up the middle and have Peter Stringer and Ronan O'Gara turning the screw, then it could all unfold again like it did here last April.
However, as a team that feed off emotion more than most, Munster cannot possibly replicate the fervour of last April.
A Friday night game in the capital cannot be as conducive to the travelling support and aside from being away from home Munster have had a day's less turnover in between a warm-up round of bruising, internecine interprovincials.
Compared to that April day too, Leinster ought to improve.
Aside from all else, if Felipe Contepomi can reproduce the verve and accuracy of his performance in the deserved league win over Munster of last New Year's Eve at the RDS rather than the wound-up, error-prone effort of last April, it will go a long way to making it a much closer contest.
But the jury is still out on a half-changed pack. The backs, largely stifled at source last time - and Brian O'Driscoll, Shane Horgan and co can rarely have hit the ground running as hungrily as they did then - are unchanged save for Chris Whitaker at scrumhalf.
Munster look in better form, more sure of themselves, not searching to the same degree for something new. The nagging suspicion lingers that Leinster are due a big performance but with another arch-spoiler in Quinlan added to the Munster mix, it could be Leinster will struggle to procure the rapid-fire ruck ball that is their lifeblood.
On the premise, handsomely reinforced last April, that packs win matches and backs decide by how much, logic therefore points to a scaled-down Munster reprise.
PREVIOUS LEAGUE MEETINGS: (01-02, final) Leinster 24 Munster 20; (03-04) Leinster 8 Munster 15; Munster 24 Leinster 13; (04-05) Leinster 17 Munster 15; Munster 19 Leinster 13; (05-06) Munster 33 Leinster 9; Leinster 35 Munster 23.
FORM GUIDE: Leinster - L W L W. Munster - L W L W.
LEADING TRY SCORERS: Leinster - Denis Hickie 3, Trevor Hogan 2. Munster - Timmy Ryan, Tomás O'Leary, David Wallace, Anthony Horgan 1 each.
LEADING POINTS SCORERS: Leinster - Felipe Contepomi 34. Munster - Jeremy Manning 23.
FORECAST: Munster to win.
