No room for rustiness as old foes Munster and Leinster prepare to do battle

A trophy is just four games away but teams are required to dispense with pre-season rustiness and fling themselves straight into the white heat of interprovincial rivalries

Munster head coach Johann van Graan with Dave Kilcoyne. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Amid all the talk of unknowns surrounding rugby’s restart in Ireland this evening, it is answers to the on-field questions that will be most eagerly awaited when Leinster face off against Munster behind closed doors at Aviva Stadium.

A six-month break for entire squads between games is unprecedented, as is playing a competitive game without spectators and all the new Covid-19 protocols that are now in place to guard against the transmission of the coronavirus that brought about such new and unusual circumstances in the first place way back when in late February, early March.