Hurley in mood to show off his range

AS one of only two players to have kept their place in the side after two Heineken Cup pool victories, Denis Hurley will feel more responsibility than most to get Munster’s defence of their league title back on track when they face Edinburgh tonight.

Making a rare outing at full-back in a back three containing rookie wings Simon Zebo and Luke O’Dea adds to that responsibility but Hurley is relishing the prospect and is thankful to be taking some momentum into the game after two strong performances on the wing against Northampton and Castres.

“I’ve maybe played one senior game at 15 in the last two seasons, so I’m looking forward to getting back playing there,” Hurley said.

“Just keeps me involved, which is important. Also helps with being diverse, being able to play in a few positions in the backline is good. I’m looking forward to how it goes.”

While beating Northampton at home and Castres in Toulouse was a deserved cause for celebration in the Munster camp there was also the awareness that those victories could have come a little more easily.

“We had two tough games and two great victories. We’re very happy,” he said. “We went to France last weekend and 11-0 down after 15 minutes, you know. We haven’t played our top rugby yet.

“We’ve been making mistakes, which is a letdown on our side. For the first four games of the season our defence was very good and we slipped the last two games of that block. Leaking the couple of tries last time out is the most disappointing aspect of our play to date.

“So this weekend there’s a big onus on us that we can tie up our shore lines a bit.

“Against Edinburgh this weekend there’s a few young lads getting a run and a few lads who haven’t been part of the squad in the last couple of weeks getting goes. So there’s a lot of potential there for lads to have a good run out and hopefully we perform and our defence is solid.”

Only Hurley and centre Danny Barnes retain their starting places from last Saturday’s win in France, with the IRFU player management programme and injuries to 13 other players including six internationals, head coach Tony McGahan has selected a much-changed side from recent weeks.

Will Chambers, Ian Keatley, Tomás O’Leary, Marcus Horan, Denis Fogarty and Donncha O’Callaghan are all promoted from last week’s bench while 10 of tonight’s match-day squad were involved in Munster’s British and Irish Cup win over Neath last weekend in a side to be captained by lock Mick O’Driscoll.

They will face a team coached by Michael Bradley for which confidence is sky high following Heineken Cup wins at London Irish and a remarkable, come from behind, 48-47 win over Racing Metro last Friday night at Murrayfield, where Edinburgh also claimed victory over Munster in September.

“When we played them they were on the back of a few losses and they beat us over there quite well, and I’d say that probably gave them a load of confidence,” Hurley said.

“They play a dangerous kind of rugby. They’ll get half-breaks on you and they’re an offloading team. They’ve a very strong back row and a very quick backline so once they get the ball in behind you they’re a hard team to stop. They’re very dangerous but that’s why this weekend our defence is going to be so important, to make sure we don’t give them those little half-breaks.”

Edinburgh welcome back experienced Scotland internationals Chris Paterson at full-back and fly-half Phil Godman.

“The last three weeks of successes all started with a win away against Benetton in Treviso which gave us confidence going into London Irish, which we converted, followed by the match against Racing Metro, which was a special day for everyone that was there,” Bradley said.

“We’ve won three matches in a row but it would be great to win four. To do that we need to keep our performance levels up and show the same commitment for 80 minutes that we have in these three previous games.”

Aside from the returning veterans, Bradley has handed Sep Visser, the 20-year-old younger brother of try-scoring hero Tim, his first competitive start on the right wing, while Scotland and Lions scrum-half Mike Blair renews a half-back partnership with Godman on his 150th appearance for Edinburgh.

There is also a new-look front row for the Scots with Kyle Traynor and Jack Gilding propping either side of captain Steve Lawrie against Horan, Denis Fogarty and Stephen Archer.

MUNSTER: Denis Hurley, L O’Dea, W Chambers, D Barnes, S Zebo, I Keatley, T O’Leary; M Horan, D Fogarty, S Archer, Donncha O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll (capt), B Holland, T O’Donnell, P Butler.

Replacements: S Henry, J Ryan, J Hayes, I Nagle, J Coughlan, D Williams, T Gleeson, S Deasy.

EDINBURGH: C Paterson; S Visser, J Thompson, J King, T Brown; P Godman, M Blair; K Traynor, S Lawrie (capt), J Gilding, S Cox, S Turnbull, N Talei, R Rennie, S McInally.

Replacements: A Kelly, R Hislop, L Niven, E Lozada, R Grant, G Laidlaw, H Leonard, G Hunter.