De Villiers and Earls set to start in centre

Munster coach Tony McGahan has paired Jean de Villiers and Keith Earls in the centre to the exclusion of Lifeimi Mafi for Saturday's Heineken Cup clash with Benetton Treviso at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo.

David Wallace starts at number eight with Niall Ronan given the chance to shine on the openside in a back row completed by the wily Alan Quinlan.

McGahan remarked: “If we don't start well this weekend and let them dominate the scoreboard as they have in every other game it'll be a difficult task to claw them back”.

MUNSTER (v Treviso): Warwick; Howlett, Earls, de Villiers, Hurley; O'Leary, O'Gara; du Preez, Fogarty, Hayes, O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Quinlan, Ronan, Wallace.

Replacements: D Varley, S Archer, J Brugnaut, D Ryan, J Coughlan, P Stringer, L Mafi, I Dowling.