Munster aiming to avoid more home discomfort as South Africa’s Bulls head to Thomond Park

GRAB THE BULLS BY THE HORNS: Seán O'Brien after the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Glasgow Warriors at Thomond Park. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.

The tough challenges keep getting tougher for Munster as they prepare to welcome South Africa’s Bulls to Thomond Park on Saturday night as they bid to avoid a second straight home defeat of the new season.

Last weekend’s 26-20 loss to Glasgow Warriors came as part of a sobering round one of the 2026-27 URC campaign for Irish rugby as all four provinces were handed defeats, with Clayton McMillan’s side running out of steam having impressed in the early stages of their game before giving up a 17-7 half-time lead.

Now Munster must face the side who ended their season last May 30 with a 45-14 hammering at altitude in Pretoria, with Johan Ackermann’s tourists opening their account with a similarly emphatic win, 47-13, at Zebre Parma last weekend.

“We know they're one of the best teams in world rugby on their day, so we know they're going to bring a lot of physicality, they're going to bring a lot of line speed,” starting Munster centre Seán O’Brien said of his side’s next opponents.

“They have massive men in their pack and in their midfield, and then they've player threats all over the back three as well, and the outside backs, like we obviously know (former Munster wing) Thaakir Abrahams very well. He'd step you in a phone box, so we know what type of threats they can bring.

“They have Willie Le Roux (named on the bench) there, two World Cups in his back pocket, he's a quality operator, they’ve brought (fly-half) Curwin Bosch in, he's doing a really good job for them. Him and Le Roux, they kind of alternate between 10 and second playmaker a lot, so they have threats all over the park.

“But I think as a whole the physicality is the biggest one. We have to take that away from them and be more physical than them. If we do that, it'll make the rest of the day a lot easier, but it's obviously easier said than done when you've a team like the Bulls coming in, but that'll be the biggest challenge, not just matching their physicality, but beating them in the physicality battle.”

With a couple of inter-provinicial derbies up on the road up next in the URC, at Ulster and Leinster either side of a Champions Cup pool opener against Racing 92 at Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on October 17, Munster could really do with a win to add to last week’s losing bonus point to have something to show for their early season ahead of the November international break.

As disappointing as last Saturday’s Glasgow loss was, head coach McMillan was correct to point to the “green shoots” emerging from his team’s performance, with some incisive attacking play and set-piece solidity contributing a try apiece in addition to wholehearted defence for long periods of the second half.

JJ Hanrahan stepped up impressively at fly-half in the absence of long-term injury absentee Jack Crowley and backed his boss’s positive assessment.

“Oh, there's loads,” Hanrahan said. “Like loads for us to take out, 100 per cent. If you look at our defensive efforts at times and the way we kept turning up for each other was amazing, I thought.

“Some of our strikes were really, really good and high quality there. Some of our multi-phase stuff was excellent. We were moving the ball to spaces and there was people in space.

“How we moved ourselves down the field, particularly in that first half, was very good. The second half, obviously we were into a big wind. They're a possession-based team. You try and exit, they hold the ball. The idea is trying to make you make 150 tackles per half.

“So it's hard to try and get the ball back. We were a little bit ill-disciplined at times. And our ill-discipline just gave them multiple opportunities at us. So we spoke about that. We've addressed it and hopefully it'll be a better result this week.”

Hanrahan now takes a back seat as a replacement with academy number 10 Charlie O’Shea is handed his first senior competitive start alongside seasonal debutant and matchday captain Craig Casey. It is a positive selection from McMillan, with a debut for Ireland-capped tighthead prop Jack Aungier following his summer move from Connacht and a first start for South African Sprringbok hooker Marnus van der Merwe, whose physicality will be needed against his big-bodied compatriots.

Also required will be greater discipline as Hanrahan suggested, the fly-half adding: “Some of it is a little bit unfortunate. Like, one or two incidents where no-one's actually trying to make a mistake but something goes wrong.

“There was one or two moments where it was definitely on ourselves. We just need to be a little bit more switched on. We don't need to be so desperate in that scenario.

“And trust each other, trust our defence, trust our sets. Because they weren't really going anywhere. I suppose it's that kind of balance of trying to make a play versus having the ability to be able to go ‘no, this is not the right opportunity’.

MUNSTER: Shane Daly; Diarmuid Kilgallen, Seán O’Brien, Dan Kelly, Shay McCarthy; Charlie O’Shea, Craig Casey - captain; Michael Milne, Marnus van der Merwe, Jack Aungier; Tom Ahern, Fineen Wycherley; Seán Edogbo, John Hodnett, Brian Gleeson.

Replacements: Kieran Brookes, Jeremy Loughman, Ronan Foxe, Evan O’Connell, Gavin Coombes, Ben O’Donovan, JJ Hanrahan, Alex Kendellen.

BULLS: Hakeem Kunene, Sebastian de Klerk, Stedman Gans, Stravino Jacobs, Thaakir Abrahams, Curwin Bosch, Zak Burger, Alu Tshakweni, Juann Else, Francois Klopper, Ruan Vermaak, Reinhardt Ludwig, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Hanro Liebenberg, Jeandre Rudolph.

Replacements: Janco Uys, Sti Sithole, Khutha Mchunu, JF van Heerden, Nizaam Carr, Paul de Wet, Cheswill Jooste, Willie le Roux.

Referee: Federico Vedovelli (Italy).