Jack O'Donoghue to captain Munster as McMillan makes 11 changes for Argentina clash

TEAM NAMED: Jack O’Donoghue is set to captain a Munster side against Argentina A at Thomond Park on Saturday showing 11 changes from the starting line-up which beat Connacht last Saturday. Picture: ©INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon

Jack O’Donoghue is set to captain a Munster side against Argentina A at Thomond Park on Saturday showing 11 changes from the starting line-up which beat Connacht last Saturday.

The 17-15 victory rounded off an unbeaten start to the new URC campaign with a fifth straight league win and with internationals away for the November Test window, head coach Clayton McMillan is using this match against a touring side to broaden his wider squad’s experience levels.

Academy tightead prop Ronan Foxe earns his first senior start for Munster in a front row also featuring loosehead Josh Wycherley and hooker Lee Barron and there is a senior debut at lock for Conor Ryan alongside Evan O’Connell, who is set make his first start of the season after a maiden appearance of 2025-26 in last Saturday’s derby win.

O’Donoghue captains Munster from blindside flanker with Gavin Coombes retaining the No.8 jersey while Ruadhán Quinn comes into the back row to join them at openside.

There are new pairings at half-back, with Paddy Patterson and Tony Butler lining out, and at centre with Seán O’Brien starting at inside centre alongside Fionn Gibbons on his first Munster start in his third Munster appearance.

Diarmuid Kilgallen keeps his spot on the right wing after a try-scoring return from an ankle injury last weekend while Shay McCarthy is rewarded for a strong performance off the bench last time out with the left wing berth as Mike Haley returns at full-back.

There are four Academy players among the replacements in hooker Max Clein, back-rower Luke Murphy, scrum-half Jake O’Riordan, who made a successful debut against Connacht, and Ben O’Connor. Both Clein and Murphy are in line for their first senior Munster appearances, bringing the number of players used by McMillan already this season to 47.

With Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley and Craig Casey set to face New Zealand in Chicago on Saturday night and Tom Ahern and Tom Farrell also in the Ireland squad for the November Tests, McMillan also must do without South Africa lock Jean Kleyn, who has joined the Springbok’s European Tour.

Wing Thaakir Abrahams and hooker Niall Scannell have entered return to play protocols following head injuries against Connacht, while flanker John Hodnett sustained a foot injury in the same game and all three also miss out for Munster.

Assistant coach Mossy Lawler, whose late uncle Colm Tucker was in the Munster side which famously beat the All Blacks at Thomond Park in 1978, has an understandable affinity with such fixtures against international opposition, with Saturday’s game a first meeting with Argentina since a draw in Limerick in 1973.

“It's something to just get really excited about,” Lawler told the Irish Examiner. “I know the history goes back to, I suppose it all started with beating the All Blacks and beating Australia.

“You have the South African game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and teams are keen to come and experience that Thomond Park atmosphere and the crowd really buy into it and we buy into it and it's just really exciting.

“Some of these guys who play on Saturday may never ever get an opportunity to play against an international team (again). So I think from our point of view, it's one that we're really, really looking forward to.” 

MUNSTER (v Argentina A): M Haley; D Kilgallen, F Gibbons, S O’Brien, S McCarthy; T Butler, P Patterson; J Wycherley, L Barron, R Foxe; C Ryan, E O’Connell; J O’Donoghue (c), R Quinn, G Coombes.

Replacements: M Clein, M Donnelly, K Ryan, F Wycherley, L Murphy, J O’Riordan, JJ Hanrahan, B O’Connor.