Munster v Dragons in the URC: kick-off time, TV details and team news

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW: Munster return to Cork this weekend as they welcome Dragons to Virgin Media Park. Picture: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Munster return to Cork this weekend as they welcome Dragons to Virgin Media Park on Friday evening as the action returns to the URC. Following their narrow defeat to Castres last weekend which dropped Munster into the Challenge Cup round of 16 Clayton McMillan will be hoping for a bounce back from his side. 

Dragons have found form winning four of their last six games. 

Here's all you need to know ahead of the game.

Where's the game being played?

The southern province are playing at Virgin Media Park in Cork.

What time is kick-off?

The match kicks off at 7.45pm on Friday January 23.

Where can I watch?

Take your pick. TG4 and Premier Sports 1 will show the match.

Who is the referee?

Scotland's Hollie Davidson will be in charge of the game with Andrew Cole and Dan Carson from the IRFU running the line and Scotland's Mike Adamson in the TMO hotseat.

What's the team news

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan has reaffirmed his three-year commitment to the province in the wake of last Saturday’s home defeat to Castres and the shock pool exit it prompted from the Investec Champions Cup.

It’s the second time the Kiwi has nailed his colours to the red mast in the wake of news from back home that the All Blacks are in the market for a new boss after Scott Robertson’s time in charge came to a premature end.

So, Munster’s costly exit from a competition they have won twice in the increasingly distant past hasn’t changed anything in terms of focus for a man who, it’s worth pointing out, doesn’t normally do his media this early in the week.

“I made a commitment to come here and I fully intend to see that out. One of the reasons why I came here is to grow my exposure to the game up in this part of the world. There are some differences and we're learning that.

McMillan was pointed in declaring that Munster’s rich heritage doesn’t earn them a “rite of passage” to any higher ground than that, but equally firm in rejecting the notion that the job at hand here is somehow bigger than he might have anticipated.

Due diligence was done before he reached for the passport, and he has “inherited” teams in a state of transition before. That’s not how he planned things, just how it has been, and he likes to think that his skillset is suited to making the changes required.

Talk of a ‘journey’ is followed with an insistence that there is no search here for a “free pass”, but he has seen signs of encouragement sprinkled through the recent defeats, even as they fall off for other long periods and finish the wrong sides of too many close scorelines.

“It absolutely sucks to lose rugby games, but we don't feel like we're that far away and when it clicks we're going to be a good rugby team. But … I'm getting everything that I anticipated. It's not any bigger or smaller than what I imagined it would be.” The approaching Six Nations, when Munster will play one game between the end of January and March 21st, will provide the breathing space to take stock and draw plans for the further evolution of the team and the wider project.

The immediate need is to recalibrate for the bread and butter of URC games, this Friday at home to Dragons in Cork, and then away to Glasgow, after the high-octane pace and stratospheric stakes of the weeks just passed against French opposition.

The usual Monday review takes one hour. The latest needed twice that as answers were sought and suggested and individuals held themselves accountable. A deep dive, said McMillan who had never seen a changing-room as down as theirs at the weekend.

It’s not an exact science. Do you go hard on the squad, or put an arm around them. McMillan was looking for a touch of vulnerability from his players this time and came away feeling he got that at least.

Whatever comes next it will have to be without the input of Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley and Craig Casey, all of whom turn their attention now to an Ireland squad that is being named on Wednesday for the 2026 Six Nations.

Tom Farrell may or may not be available this week.

McMillan used familiar phrases. Rest button. Line in the sand. The meeting itself was a state-of-the-nation affair. The mantra of consistency continues, the idea being that the Dragons in the URC this week is every bit as big as Castres in Europe.

It’s a message he’ll be delivering again come the start of April when they go to Exeter for that Challenge Cup round of 16 game and it’s a mindset that he is looking to drill down in to to every man jack in the building.

Inaccuracies are a bugbear with 55% of the points they conceded in the Champions Cup coming when they had less than 15 players on the field. And, for all their good attacking play and tries, they’re not being ruthless enough either.

“We’re doing enough in games to win. When the opposition are gifting us opportunities to really put the foot on the throat, we're not taking that. We're turning it into more of an arm wrestle than perhaps it needs to be.

“It’s not any one thing in particular. Lots of little things that I think we can solve." Brendan O'Brien