Tony Butler to take reins for Munster as Carbery out due to injury

Jack Crowley’s selection comes a week ahead of schedule after Munster received special dispensation from the IRFU for him to return to training on Thursday, once Joey Carbery’s situation became clear. 

FIRST SENIOR START: Tony Butler will make his first senior start for Munster at outhalf when they take on Dragons. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher

Tony Butler will be aiming to live up to the maxim that one player’s misfortune is another’s opportunity when the academy fly-half takes the reins for Munster against Dragons in Cork this afternoon in the absence of Joey Carbery.

The Irish international playmaker is set for surgery next week on a wrist injury sustained against Benetton last week with Butler set for his first senior start. He will partner scrum-half Craig Casey, who along with Jack Crowley, named by Graham Rowntree as a replacement out-half for this BKT URC round-three contest at Musgrave Park (5:15pm), represents the first appearances of the season for returning World Cup players from the province.

Crowley’s selection comes a week ahead of schedule after Munster received special dispensation from the IRFU for him to return to training on Thursday, once Carbery’s situation became clear. Otherwise Munster’s team selection leans deep into the squad.

Rowntree has named seven academy players in his matchday 23 to face a winless Dragons team itself missing 20 players to injury and Wales call-ups, with seven of its first-team squad set to face the Barbarians in Cardiff this afternoon.

Butler, 21 and from Ennis, made his debut off the bench in December 2021 during that epic Champions Cup victory at Wasps, when the majority of Johann van Graan’s squad was either in Covid quarantine or self-isolation following an ill-fated tour to South Africa.

That matchweek gave a new meaning to making the most of the bare minimum and while Munster are not remotely in the same dire straits this weekend as 23 months ago, there is a clearly a reliance on the province’s young guns while the majority of the internationals continue to recharge.

Nine academy men were deployed across the first two rounds of this new URC season and another, full-back and former Cork hurler Ben O’Connor, is set for his senior debut today, having been named on the bench alongside loosehead prop Mark Donnelly, and back rowers Ruadhán Quinn and Brian Gleeson. Butler is one of three starters in Rowntree’s XV, with Edwin Edogbo retaining his place at lock alongside Tom Ahern, whose comeback from long-term injury continued with the late try that rescued a draw at Benetton last Sunday to keep Munster’s winning start to the campaign intact. The other is loosehead Kieran Ryan, who holds onto the number one jersey with Josh Wycherley still nursing the neck issue that forced him out at late notice in Treviso six days ago and led to Ryan’s first senior start.

With summer signings Alex Nankivell and Sean O’Brien making their first starts at outside centre and right wing respectively, there are seven changes from that 13-13 draw in Italy.

“I don’t know if it’s even rotating because it’s still early doors,” attack coach Mike Prendergast said earlier this week, before the extent of Carbery’s injury was known. “We want to give certain combinations a bit of time together. We might be forced into one or two (changes), we have to wait and see what happens there but if it is it’s next man up and it’s an opportunity for another man. I’m a huge believer in that and that’s how you build squads.

“Any of the academy lads that have come in with us this year have put their hands up. We’ve some 19-, 20-year-olds lads playing prop forward at the moment, which is good learning curves for them.

“Some of them have got good exposure through the three games in a long pre-season so they’ve had time with us so it could end up like that, absolutely.” 

MUNSTER: S Daly; S O’Brien, A Nankivell, R Scannell, C Nash; T Butler, C Casey; K Ryan, D Barron, J Ryan; E Edogbo, T Ahern; J O’Donoghue - captain, A Kendellen, G Coombes.

Replacements: S Buckley, M Donnelly, S Archer, R Quinn, B Gleeson, P Patterson, J Crowley, B O’Connor.

DRAGONS: A O’Brien; C Baldwin, S Hughes - captain, J Dixon, A Hewitt; W Reed, R Williams; R Jones, B Roberts, L Yendle; J Davies, G Nott; R Woodman, J Benjamin, Taine Basham 

Replacements: B Coghlan, A Seiuli, N Evans, B Langton-Cryer, G Young, D Blacker, A Owen, E Rosser Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland).