Plenty at stake for men of Munster
Eight points adrift of the European champions with four games to go may be a deficit deemed too large to scrape back but the three-point gap that separates second-placed Munster from third-placed Ospreys is chief among McGahan’s concerns as his province seeks to secure a home semi-final berth.
“We are always looking to chase first place but I think where we’re at, we are just really concentrating on ourselves and we know if we keep producing results like we did against Connacht last week, that we’re three points ahead of Ospreys and if we can control what we do, we’ll end up in second place,” McGahan said.
“I think first place at this stage is probably gone.”
Ospreys’ strong position was helped by a defeat of Leinster eight days ago at the RDS and that result will contribute to the intensity of the occasion tonight with both sides welcoming back their Irish internationals following a post-Six Nations rest last weekend and ahead of next weekend’s all-important Heineken Cup quarter-finals.
“You get a high-quality opposition, you get a full crowd, a great preparation week, all the internationals coming back into the mix, so if you look at all the ingredients of that being put together it’s always a great spectacle,” McGahan said. “The players are looking forward to it, the management are looking forward to it, the Six Nations is gone now with four or five games of depleted squads right across the board and to get everyone back to as full strength as possible, it’s two high quality sides going for it. So I don’t think you could ask for anything more.”
Having supplied more players to Ireland’s Six Nations starting XV, Leinster’s reinforcements are greater than the hosts and their coach Joe Schmidt has made 10 changes and one positional switch from last weekend for the trip to Limerick. Hooker Sean Cronin, tighthead prop Mike Ross, flanker Shane Jennings, number eight Jamie Heaslip, half-backs Eoin Reddan and Jonny Sexton, centre Gordon D’Arcy and full-back Rob Kearney are the Test returnees while Devin Toner partners Brad Thorn at second row in place of Leo Cullen, Kevin McLaughlin makes it an all-new back row and Isa Nacewa moves from full-back to the wing in place of Dave Kearney.
Cullen, Cian Healy and Sean O’Brien are named amongst the replacements. D’Arcy will partner Brian O’Driscoll in midfield after the Ireland captain successfully came through his first appearance of the season against the Ospreys following shoulder surgery. It will be D’Arcy’s 200th Leinster cap while Luke Fitzgerald reaches his century for the province in a team captained tonight by Heaslip.
It is a line-up which confirms McGahan’s view that Leinster are the best team in Europe.
“I think you look at the personnel that they have and the way that they contribute and the way they can play with such intensity, they can certainly play the game in many different forms,” the Munster director of coaching said.
“Their age profile, the qualities of international experience they have gathered, their winning domestic trophies as regards the Magners League, they’ve won two Heineken Cups in the last three years. I just think they have an excellent mix of all round performance, a strong coaching group and they are certainly producing results on the pitch.
“Couple that with their lack of injuries at this point, they have a very strong squad, look at the squad they put out last week with Cullen, O’Driscoll and Thorn put in and they still have the opportunity to bring back in their 11 internationals this week. You put all those factors in and I think they are in a very strong place.”
Munster will also be boosted by their returning internationals with McGahan making six changes, one positional, to the side that started the win over Connacht in Galway last Saturday. Keith Earls, Donncha O’Callaghan, Peter O’Mahony and Ronan O’Gara — who captains the side — all reappear from Test duty while Marcus Horan is preferred at loosehead to Wian du Preez. Johne Murphy moves from outside centre to the right wing to accommodate Earls at 13.
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