Kidney leaves Stringer on the bench for Cup clash

Declan Kidney has made the stunning decision to drop Peter Stringer in favour of Tomas O'Leary for Munster's Heineken Cup quarter-final at Kingsholm tomorrow.

In another surprise, Denis Hurley gets the nod over rock solid Shaun Payne to start at full-back.

Denis Leamy's power from the base is preferred to Anthony Foley's knowledge at number eight with David Wallace and Alan Quinlan completing a strong back row.

Ahead of the match, Gloucester coach Dean Ryan singled out Munster's "ability to travel with the knowledge of how they're going to turn up" as a potential stumbling block for the current Premiership leaders this weekend.

However, Gloucester will hope home advantage can swing the tie in their favour, which would be a remarkable achievement for a squad with an average age of 23.

The English side's form book shows they have lost four of their last 11 outings, but the records also indicate that Munster have lost to Gloucester on their last two visits to Kingsholm, a statistic that is uppermost in Declan Kidney's mind.

Munster: D Hurley; D Howlett, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O’Gara, T O’Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (capt), A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy.

Replacements: F Sheahan, T Buckley, M O’Driscoll, A Foley, P Stringer, P Warwick, K Lewis.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).