Injury woes pile pressure on Munster

Some 29 years have elapsed since Connacht last beat Munster at Thomond Park. In that space of time, they have been unlucky on a few occasions, on others they returned west on the back of one or two hammerings. 

Either way, they have never undertaken the task as leaders of a tournament as significant as the Guinness Pro 12, and that’s just what they will be doing on Saturday afternoon next when they attempt to eradicate a particularly unhappy statistic from the record book.

Munster coach Anthony Foley needs no reminding of the impressive manner in which Pat Lam’s team have hit the ground running, winning six of their seven league outings to date and with two victories in the European Challenge Cup also to their credit. It certainly doesn’t help Munster’s prospects that they have a number of injury concerns, with Peter O’Mahony and Duncan Casey in the early days of recuperation from major knee and quad operations and Mike Sherry another three or four weeks away from successfully rehabbing a damaged knee.