Tough calls to name first fifteen
In spite of the continued absence of Shaun Payne and Paul O’Connell, Kidney admitted to a dilemma when choosing his back division “because there’s great competition there now. Even though we are down Shaun (Payne), you had John Kelly and Anthony Horgan coming back into it, while Brian Carney did well last week, Mossie Lawler is back and leaving Barry Murphy out was not easy.”
The preference for New Zealander Lifeimi Mafi over Murphy was one of the big talking points and while the pack more or less picked itself, Kidney still deliberated before finally making up his mind.
“Once Anthony (Foley) reappears on the scene, it’s very hard leaving him out”, said the coach. “You have to weigh up how much football different fellas have under their belts. John O’Sullivan had a fine game in Belfast last week and I will choose between them for the bench when I have to.”
The importance of tonight’s game cannot be exaggerated in Kidney’s estimation. He pointed out that “it could all end tomorrow for this season.”
“Llanelli are that good really because they just outscore teams. If we’re not up there for eighty minutes, they’ll outscore us. That’s the way they play.
“With some teams, it can be a tactical thing. With Llanelli, they just go out to score as many points as they can. Over the season, they’ve been clocking up a huge number of points, a lot of bonus points for four tries.
“Against Leinster in the opening eighty seconds, they went through ten phases in the first play and so they get into it from the very start. If we’re not diligent in our use of possession, they’ll do very well with turnover ball.”
Kidney refuses to look at livewire Scarlets scrum-half Dwayne Peel as their dangerman, insisting instead that “I have seen their forward be destructive at scrum time and maul. In the backs, they have a load of line breakers right across the line. The wings are great finishers, the full-back is a good counter attacker. I’m not trying to talk them up. That’s just the way they are and the fact that we have to go to Stradey makes it harder again.
“If we win, it will be brilliant, if we lose it won’t be a great surprise.”
Kidney makes light of the fact that Munster haven’t played together as a team for a couple of months, stressing that it’s something they have had to cope with many times in the past. As for Mick O’Driscoll’s fitness, he is reassured by what the player himself told him yesterday morning.
“He has trained that bit more each day this week”, he pointed out. “This is a game in which you play all your big players. There’s a chance with every player. He’s fit to go. All players have bangs and knocks. Some times these things come back again. That could happen but it would be terrible to have him sitting on the touchline and be healthy for eighty minutes and not use him. So that’s what we are going to do. Nobody likes losing their captain and Paul is a huge loss and we wouldn’t hide behind that, you always try to make it a team effort rather than putting the pressure on any one individual player.”
Just as the return of Kelly, O’Driscoll and Foley is a boost for Munster, so, too, have Scarlets spirits been lifted with Welsh winger Mark Jones to take his place in their starting line-up.
Jones took a bang on the knee in training on Tuesday and that prompted coach Phil Davies to put Matthew Watkins on standby. But after coming through yesterday’s rigorous fitness test, Jones got the green light to start in the No. 14 jersey.
“It is very important that we perform well and deliver the capabilities we possess in a crunch game,” said Davies last night.
“There are a lot of people excited by the way we played in Toulouse and Ulster, not just our supporters but rugby fans throughout the country. Munster are a top side. They lost to Leicester at home but on occasions you do lose big games in your own backyard but that does not make them a bad side.”
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