RUGBY/PRO 12:ULSTER COACH Brian McLaughlin can feel somewhat justified by 60-odd minutes of his grossly under-strength Ulster side's performance in Dublin on December 26th.
However, the tactical manoeuvres over the festive period will be considered a failure if they don’t put a weakened Munster team away this evening in Belfast.
They also need victory to stay in touch with the play-off contenders at this midway juncture of the RaboDirect Pro 12 campaign.
“It’s a huge game for us,” said McLaughlin. “It’s at Ravenhill and it’s against Munster. When the fixture list came out we were not very happy with the fact that we had a four-day turnaround but we just have to manage the scheduling as best we can.
“We want to put our best team out on the pitch as often as we possibly can, but the Irish management programme looks after the internationals and we have to look after the rest of the players as well so we took the decision, and it was not taken lightly, to run two separate squads for two games.”
The fixture is a sell-out and live on television but one can’t help wondering if the competition would be better served by shifting this Irish derby to ensure it showcases the best talent in each province and not patched up line-ups.
Taking just the Irish management programme into consideration, 10 of the World Cup squad are absent. Add another seven internationals (including Doug Howlett and Simon Danielli) who are injured.
McLaughlin can call upon seven non-Irish players, having made 15 changes from the 42-13 defeat to Leinster.
Stefan Terblanche makes his first start on the wing, a position where he first came to prominence in an Irish context when running in four tries on his Springbok debut in 1998.
The presumption is young Luke O’Dea, making his second start in four days, will do a better marking job than the great Denis Hickie did in Bloemfontein way back when.
Captain Mick O’Driscoll and outhalf Ian Keatley are the others retained as Munster coach Tony McGahan makes 12 changes from the side that swept past Connacht last Monday.
With the age of John Hayes now past, and Peter Borlase and BJ Botha not included, Stephen Archer gets an uninterrupted chance to scrum down against Ulster’s coming loosehead Paddy McAllister.
Niall Ronan and Danny Barnes are also rested with one eye fixed on January visits from Treviso, Castres and Northampton away.
Another obvious head to head is between Keatley and Ian Humphreys as one of them is bound to become Jonathan Sexton’s under-study in a year or so, providing somebody, maybe the injured Paddy Jackson, doesn’t pass them out.
Humphreys should have the easier ride of it behind Johann Muller’s pack.
Considering the road ahead, this is only a phoney war but Ulster should prevail with something to spare, mainly because this is not really Munster.
Much like it wasn’t Ulster at the RDS.
ULSTER: A DArcy; C Gilroy, D Cave, I Whitten, S Terblanche; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; P McAllister, A Kyriacou, J Afoa; J Muller (capt), D Tuohy; P Wannenburg, W Faloon, C Henry. Replacements: N Brady, C Black, A Macklin, L Stevenson, A Birch, P Marshall, C Farrell, P Nelson.
Not available due to injury/sickness:
Ja Payne (Achilles), P Wallace (hand),
D Fitzpatrick (neck), L Marshall (ankle),
P Jackson (ankle), N Spence (ankle),
T Barker (sickness), S Danielli (sickness).
Not available due to IRFU Player Management Programme: T Court, R Best, S Ferris, A Trimble.
MUNSTER: D Hurley; L ODea, T Gleeson, L Mafi, J Murphy; I Keatley, D Williams; W du Preez, D Varley, S Archer; I Nagle, M ODriscoll (capt); Dave OCallaghan, T ODonnell, J Coughlan. Replacements: D Fogarty, M Horan, J Ryan, B Holland, P Butler, T OLeary, S Deasy, W Chambers.
Not available due to injury/sickness: D Wallace (knee); T Smith (knee); F Jones (foot); J Flannery (calf); D Howlett (Achilles); D Hurley (back); M Sherry (ankle); P OMahony (jaw); D Leamy (hip),
D Cusack (shoulder); S Scanlon
(shoulder).
Not available due to IRFU Player Management Programme: P OConnell, D OCallaghan, D Ryan, C Murray, R OGara, K Earls.
Referee: A Rolland (IRFU).
Previous meetings: Munster 35-10 Ulster (1/1/11); Ulster 6-16 Munster (29/10/10); Ulster 15-10 Munster (2/1/10)
Verdict: Ulster win.
