Warriors braced for battle

Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend believes his team are coming to Thomond Park at the right time and in the right frame of mind.

However, the former Scottish international yesterday paid tribute to Munster for reaching the Heineken Cup semi-final and admitted his side faces an uphill battle.

“Munster have been in excellent form this season and are now the sole representatives from the Pro12 in the Heineken Cup, so we’re under no illusions about the size of the task we face,” he said.

“A lot of our squad have put their hands up for selection this week and it was a difficult team to pick with so many in-form players. We’re delighted to be heading to Limerick on the back of a three-game winning run, but we know there are areas where we must improve if we’re to come away with a victory.”

Seven points behind Munster, Glasgow will be seeking retribution for an early season defeat while retaining hope of making the Pro12 semi-finals. The Scots are coming to town in the knowledge that defeat will likely end their season while victory will keep them in the mix.

Munster’s James Coughlan has been named as skipper in place of the injured Peter O’Mahony who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

The loss of O’Mahony makes it difficult for Munster, but it’s not catastrophic news as far as coach Rob Penney is concerned given the captain will be involved in analysis for the rest of the season following his recovery from surgery.

“Peter has an important role still to play,” he said.

“He’ll do some analysis for us and he’ll be supporting the group behind the scenes with us coaches and the players, helping prepare for the games ahead.

“I spoke to him following the surgery and he was in a buoyant enough mood given the disappointment of the news. Peter is a pragmatic person so he’s approaching it with a real view of getting himself right for the long term. The surgeon said it was a great success although they had to do a little bit more than they thought, so hopefully now he can start his rehab,” said Penney yesterday.

This weekend’s selection sees seven personnel changes from the side that started last Saturday against Toulouse. BJ Botha is the only front row member to remain and he will pack down alongside Duncan Casey and John Ryan. Paul O’Connell is rested so Munster’s most capped player, Donncha O’Callaghan, joins Dave Foley in the second row to win his 247th cap. Following his man of the match display last weekend, CJ Stander also starts and Sean Dougall returns at open-side.

JJ Hanrahan joins Murray in the half back partnership while Keith Earls moves to outside centre in the absence of Casey Laulala who continues to recuperate after fracturing a bone in his hand against Toulouse. Gerhard van den Heever takes Earls’ position on the wing, the South African flyer hoping to add to his tally of two tries in six matches in the RaboDirect Pro12.

After his man of the match performance against Treviso last week, Glasgow’s Finn Russell keeps the 12 jersey, with Alex Dunbar replacing Mark Bennett at outside centre; Duncan Weir comes in for Ruaridh Jackson at fly-half and Chris Cusiter once again captains the side, after replacing Henry Pyrgos at scrum-half.

But this day is all about Munster and whether they’re capable of stringing two big games together. And JJ Hanrahan hopes this Munster side have turned the corner in terms of consistency.

“Last year was slow; it was a transition period for us although we still got to the Heineken Cup semi-final,” he said. “In fact last year, and I have no problem saying it, you had your internationals coming back and playing Heineken and doing really well and you had the Rabo side who let the team down a bit while the bit boys were away.

“This year, at the start of the year, we said we’d put a big emphasis on [improving] that. I suppose the good thing was that the young fellas tried to drive on this year.”

MUNSTER: F Jones, G van den Heever, K Earls, J Downey, S Zebo, JJ Hanrahan, C Murray, J Ryan, D Casey, BJ Botha, D O’Callaghan, D Foley, CJ Stander, S Dougall, J Coughlan (capt).

Replacements: Q MacDonald, D Kilcoyne, A Cotter, B Holland, P Butler, D Williams, I Keatley, J Murphy.

GLASGOW WARRIORS: P Murchie, S Maitland, A Dunbar, F Russell, T Seymour, D Weir, C Cusiter (capt), G Reid, D Hall, J Welsh, T Swinson, J Gray, J Strauss, F Wilson, C Fusaro.

Replacements: P MacArthur, J Yahuyanutawa, G Cross, L Nakarawa, R Harley, H Pyrgos, P Horne, R Vernon.