RUGBY:AND SO Munster arrive in Swansea irked and chippy that Paul O'Connell will not be among them. Much has been said about the hole left in the Munster side due to the secondrow's four-week suspension. But if Munster have to go to a bear pit like Liberty Stadium, where the club has been encouraging fans in the city to arrive dressed in all black and where they are certain of their biggest crowd of the season, then why not arrive aggrieved over the fact that their talisman and Lion has been denied the chance to play.
Tony McGahan has left the side unchanged aside from Donnacha Ryan coming on to the bench for O’Connell and so the team arrive very much as they did last week only this time with the firm intention of finishing the business. Two points ahead of Toulon and four ahead of Ospreys on the table, the pool remains wide open. But a win going into Christmas would do nicely thanks.
Not alone did Munster emerge 22-16 winners last week but fly into Wales having beaten Ospreys in last year’s quarter-final in Limerick and more pertinently in the 2004-’05 season, travelled over in the pool stages and won 20-18.
One of the great strengths of this ever-consistent Munster side is their anxiety of the away game has greatly diminished over the years. But there are things too the team can fix from last week’s performance. Ronan O’Gara uncharacteristically left some points out on the pitch, while an intercept try from Tommy Bowe also helped to wind the Munster effort. Those lapses make a double-digit difference to the bottom line.
Ospreys largely liked the way they performed at Thomond Park and will have looked at the match through their own prism and seen their scoreline could have been much better. Bowe said in an interview during the week that they thought they had caught Munster on the hop but were hit with two tries in 10 minutes that hurt.
Ospreys outhalf Dan Biggar will again be pivotal and will be asked to keep the scoreboard ticking over. He’ll be looking to better the 11 points that came from his boot at Thomond Park.
Ospreys make only one change their line-up and interestingly move Bowe in from the right wing to outside centre. They are not averse to changing player positions. Indeed it was one of the epiphanies the Irish winger revealed to all in his first season after moving from Ulster to the Welsh aristocrats. They expect their back line to be flexible and able to play in various roles.
Bowe replaces Andrew Bishop in the only change, which means they would like to see him get a little more ball and be a more integral part of their defensive unit. That’s all fine if Mike Phillips lets the ball out and, as former Leinster captain Liam Toland pointed out earlier this week, the more that the capably physical scrumhalf takes on the ball himself into contact, the less opportunities talented outside backs like Bowe and James Hook will have to work their own mojo. Their other mercurial players, Shane Williams and Lee Byrne are still injured.
The match will also be Ryan Jones’s 100th game for the region and he will face Donnacha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll. The natural leader and Welsh international has recently moved forward to the number four jersey.
McGahan, however, declined to engage this week on the issue of O’Connell’s red card or discuss the critical comments made by Ospreys coach Jonathan Humphreys in relation to his allegations of illegal scrummaging in last week’s match. A matter for the referee you would have thought and perhaps that’s Ospreys’ intent, to draw attention to Roman Poite today.
It’s mischievous alright but Munster are big boys in Europe, although, their website did waspishly point out that at around the same time as the Munster captain was being made aware of his four -week suspension, Ospreys were announcing the new contract for Jonathan Thomas, who has become the real shirt-pulling villain around Limerick.
The stakes are high and so are animosities. Defeat for the home side would see them depart, while there will be a lot of attention on second-placed Toulon’s game against London Irish. When you think about it, that’s all you really want from a Heineken Cup match.
OSPREYS: B Davies; N Walker, T Bowe, J Hook, R Fussell; D Biggar, M Phillips; P James, R Hibbard, A Jones, R Jones, A Jones,capt, J Collins, M Holah, J Thomas. Replacements: M Davies, D Jones, C Mitchell, I Gough, J Tipuric, J Nutbrown, S Parker, A Bishop.
MUNSTER: P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, S Tuitupou, J Murphy; R OGara, T OLeary; W du Preez, D Varley, T Buckley, D OCallaghan, M ODriscoll, J Coughlan, D Wallace, D Leamy, capt. Replacements: M Sherry, D Hurley, J Hayes, D Ryan, A Quinlan, P Stringer, L Mafi, D Hurley.
Referee: Romain Poite (France).
Previous meetings: 2004-05-Ospreys 18, Munster 20; Munster 20, Ospreys 10; 2008-09 quarter-final: Munster 43, Ospreys 9. Betting: Ospreys 4/9. Draw 20/1; Munster 17/10.Verdict: Munster win
