Munster ring changes for Saints clash as Murray and Earls left out

BIG CALLS: Munster head coach Graham Rowntree during a squad training session at Thomond Park in Limerick this week. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Captain Peter O’Mahony leads a host of frontline players returning to the Munster team for Saturday’s crunch Heineken Champions Cup pool clash with Northampton Saints while Graham Rowntree has handed a first European start to prop Roman Salanoa.

Head coach Rowntree has made nine changes and one positional switch to the starting line-up which claimed a bonus-point, 33-3 BKT URC win over the Lions in Cork last Friday. Flanker O’Mahony, lock Tadhg Beirne and fly-half Joey Carbery all return to the side having been rested under IRFU player welfare protocols while scrum-half Craig Casey, centre Antoine Frisch and wing Calvin Nash come back into the backline after being given last weekend off.