Thomond Park will buzz for box office talent show

It was not so long ago that you had to wait until a Saturday night to get a slice of must-watch X-Factor.

Yet while the wannabe stars on Simon Cowell’s talent show no longer grab the limelight like they used to, a near sell-out crowd at Thomond Park this afternoon will be treated to a genuine offering of that indescribable, unquantifiable quality that puts bums on seats, sends pulses racing and demands full attention for 80-plus minutes.

Munster versus Leicester on the European stage needs no hard-sell. Send 30 sacks of spuds out with their respective jerseys on and it would still constitute a marquee fixture. Yet today’s Champions Cup Pool 1 clash in Limerick has so much more appeal to it than simply a meeting of former two-time Heineken Cup winners.