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Munster v Leinster - One of rugby's fiercest rivalries
By Fred Culazzo
Munster will host Leinster this afternoon in the St.Stephen's Day clash at Thomond Park, with both teams lying in second place in their respective Pro14 conferences.
The two Irish provinces have played a total of 94 times, with Leinster holding the edge with 47 wins to Munster's 42 and 5 draws. Leinster also have the better of recent encounters, winning 4 of the last five clashes.
The game will see some exciting new talent line out alongside several internationals and British & Irish Lions.
In the backline, the electric Jordan Larmour will start at fullback for Leinster, with James Lowe and Barry Daly completing the back three. Munster have opted for Andrew Conway at Fullback, with Irish internationals Sweetnam and Earls on either wing.
21-year-old Sammy Arnold will line out at 13 for Munster opposite 23-year-old Leinster man Rory O'Loughlin, who is being afforded some game time in his favoured position in the absence of Garry Ringrose. The two relative newcomers will have the more experienced duo of Scannell & Henshaw playing on their inside.
The number 10 tussle between Keatley & Ross Byrne will have implications beyond tonight's game. Despite an improved start to the season from Keatley, doubts remain over his kicking, game management and overall ability at international level. With Sexton suffering another concussion and Jackson currently standing trial, Joe Schmidt will be looking on intently as the two outhalves look to stake a claim for a place in the Irish Six Nations squad.
Munster look to have an edge in the pack, with a backrow consisting of two Lions in Stander and O'Mahony alongside Tommy O'Donnell. Leinster meanwhile have called on Jack McGrath to lead the squad, with James Ryan, Dan Leavey and Jack Conan all looking to continue their impressive starts to the season.
Despite several injuries, tonight's game highlights the strength in depth of both provinces and the stellar work of their respective academies. With big money offers coming in for Ireland's top players from abroad, the IRFU will be heartened to see the next generation of players coming through the ranks.
A sold-out Thomond Park should give Munster the advantage, but the Leinster young guns have a confidence and pomp that should see it remain a tight game that may well be decided by some backline magic.
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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