Injuries force Munster interim boss Costello into four changes for Bulls clash

New arrival Lee Barron is set to make his Munster bow off the bench. 

Munster's Jack Crowley and Peter O'Mahony after their Champions Cup exit in Bordeaux. Pic: Billy Stickland/Inpho

Munster are set to hand a debut to hooker Lee Barron as they seek to turn the page from from a Champions Cup exit in Bordeaux to the hunt for a URC play-off berth with the visit of South Africa’s Bulls to Thomond Park on Saturday.

Interim head coach Ian Costello has made four changes and a positional switch from last Saturday’s 47-29 European quarter-final defeat at Bordeaux-Begles for this crucial league clash with the third-placed Bulls. 

With only four rounds remaining of the regular season, Munster need to at least hang onto their top-eight standing. They are currently in fifth place, but with only nine points separating them and the Lions in 14th.

Fresh injuries over the past two Champions Cup weekends have seen Lee Barron and fellow front-rower Michael Milne join on loan to the end of the season ahead of their permanent summer moves from Leinster with the hooker parachuted straight into the matchday squad following a shoulder injury to namesake Diarmuid Barron at Stade Chaban-Delmas. 

Niall Scannell moves up from the bench to start in the front row between Josh Wycherley and Oli Jager, with Lee Barron named on the Munster bench.

Costello earlier this week hinted at rotation to refresh the squad following two heavyweight knockout ties in France, with loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman sustaining a possibly season-ending hamstring injury the previous weekend in the victory over La Rochelle. 

No.8 Gavin Coombes and wing Calvin Nash picked up ankle injuries in Bordeaux, while John Hodnett damaged a toe in the same match and none have been risked against the Bulls on Saturday evening with an away game at Cardiff next up six days later.

The absences of Coombes and openside flanker Hodnett means a backrow reshuffle with Alex Kendellen promoted from the bench to No.8 while Tom Ahern makes a similar journey, from replacement to blindside flanker as Peter O’Mahony switches jersey from six to seven.

Nash’s place on the right wing goes to the in-form Sean O’Brien, who impressed off the bench last weekend, with his place among the backline replacements going to a fit-again Diarmuid Kilgallen, who has been sidelined since February and is now in line for just his fifth appearance since a summer move from Connacht.

Munster stick to a combination of six forwards and two backs for their substitutes with Jack O’Donoghue, primed for his first appearance in two months following injury, and Ruadhan Quinn the back-row replacements.

MUNSTER (v Bulls): T Abrahams; S O’Brien, T Farrell, A Nankivell, A Smith; J Crowley, C Casey; J Wycherley, N Scannell, O Jager; J Kleyn, T Beirne - captain; T Ahern, P O’Mahony, A Kendellen.

Replacements: L Barron, M Donnelly, S Archer, F Wycherley, J O’Donoghue, C Murray, D Kilgallen, R Quinn.