United Rugby Championship: Munster v Leinster, Thomond Park, Friday, 7.35pm – Live on TG4 & Premier Sports
Leinster assistant coach Robin McBryde spoke of Thomond Park being a place where you “find out about yourself.” That holds true even with a Munster squad with many more injury woes than they would have wanted, or deserve.
Although Irish lock Tadhg Beirne returns as captain, Munster face Leinster in the United Rugby Championship (URC) without Thaakir Abrahams (shoulder), Craig Casey (knee) and Jean Kleyn (thigh) – all confirmed as being ruled out for the next four months.
Nor are Peter O’Mahony (calf contusion) and Conor Murray (elbow), Dave Kilcoyne (thigh), Jeremy Loughman (hip) or Alex Nankivell (hamstring) included in the matchday squad as Leinster arrive with Irish captain Caelan Doris leading the team.
A ready-built excuse people might think. But Leinster, with no less than 13 international players starting, know the Munster animal especially well and in front of over 26,000 fans, there will be little left on the home pitch on the final whistle.
Still, Leinster go in as favourites, as they do most weeks, with Jamie Osborne moving into the fullback position for the injured Hugo Keenan.
Following their win over Connacht last week Leo Cullen was unhappy about several aspects of the Leinster team play, not least of all how Connacht cast off the chains and ran at Leinster in the second half, almost causing one of the upsets of the season in the Aviva Stadium.
Munster may take something from Connacht’s attitude and their fearless determination to play rugby, take some chances, run at Leinster and put them on the back foot. But that is easier said than done as Denis Leamy explained earlier this week.
“There’s definitely a big change in mindset from what I can see,” said the Munster defence coach. “They’re, how would you say, ‘brilliantly boring’ and I say that giving them a lot of credit and admiration.
“They kick the ball almost more than any other team in the league. They play territory almost more than any other team in the league and they are then brutal when they get into your score zone. They’ve got this power-based game now that is really, really strong and how you deny them access to that is they key thing.
“They back their defence, they back their kicking game, they don’t try to do too much in terms of over playing and they just strangle you, put you down into the 22 and then they’ve those big power men running down on top of you and they’re a handful.”
What he also knows is that Leinster try to get off to quick starts and make the scoreboard work for them. They throw down the gauntlet, so to speak, and challenge opponents in a catch-up game.
Leinster were 17-0 up against Connacht last week at half-time with their first score from Andrew Osborne after 20 minutes with Oisin Dowling scoring Connacht’s first points after half-time on 52 minutes.
Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose form a world-class centre partnership with the venerable Luke McGrath and the fresh shoot of Sam Prendergast in the Leinster halfbacks, another area people will look at with some intrigue.
The Leinster locks and backrow, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, in his 150th appearance, and Doris could all start for the current Irish team on any given day and that area will be a challenge for Munster.
In the Munster backs Tom Farrell has been eye-catching this season and lines out alongside Rory Scannell. His hat-trick against 14-man Ulster last week has marked the centre as a player in form and as Leamy sees it, perhaps overlooked.
“He’s very impressive. He’s a very cool customer,” said Leamy. “He’s been around a long time. It hasn’t been a straight road for Tom. He spent time in Bedford in the English Championship. He’s spent time in Connacht and he’s arrived to us.
“We always thought he was a very good player but having worked closely with him over the last while you get the sense this is a guy that’s underrated. As they say there’s two types of players, the underrated and the overrated. He’s underrated.”
In week nine unbeaten Leinster lead the URC table with Munster in sixth place and 17 points behind. This is a disrupted week with Christmas Day but if Munster can catch Leinster in their second-half mood against Connacht, they might come away with something.
However, the bigger impression is with some of the proven test match campaigners coming in, Leinster know and respect the challenge of Munster and will be fully focused on, as McBryde said, finding out about themselves.
Munster: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly; Billy Burns, Ethan Coughlan; Dian Bleuler, Niall Scannell, Oli Jager; Fineen Wycherley, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Tom Ahern, Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes. Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, Kieran Ryan, John Ryan, Brian Gleeson, John Hodnett, Paddy Patterson, Tony Butler, Ben O’Connor.
Leinster: Jamie Osborne; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Jimmy O’Brien; Sam Prendergast, Luke McGrath; Jack Boyle, Ronan Kelleher, Rabah Slimani; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt). Replacements: Lee Barron, Andrew Porter, Cian Healy, Brian Deeny, Scott Penny, Fintan Gunne, Ross Byrne, Jordan Larmour.
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU).
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