So with the tension building to what is one of the great annual matches in the Magners League campaign if not one of the best and most anticipated matches every year on the rugby union calendar Munster have named a 26-man squad for Saturday evening’s encounter with Leinster at the RDS.
With the returns to selection of Paul O’Connell, David Wallace, Niall Ronan, Keith Earls, Jerry Flannery, Ian Dowling, Peter Stringer, Paul Warwick and Denis Leamy coach Tony McGahan really has the cream of the Munster team to select from and I don’t think anyone should be under delusions that the current Heineken Cup champions despite having home advantage are going to have it easy in anyway.
With a very impressive debut last week of Jean de Villiers and some sublime play from Nick Williams showing that Munster may well have found at long last an outstanding No8 something they were missing for some time we can certainly expect the Leinster defence to be tested to the fullest and in return a great game of rugby and more importantly hopefully we will get to see the full use of as many players as possible to give McGahan a good idea of the strongest team for the following weeks encounter with Northampton Saints in their opening game of the Heineken Cup.
Forwards: M Horan, J Hayes, T Buckley, D Fogarty, J Flannery, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, P O’Connell, D Ryan, D Leamy, N Ronan, D Wallace, N Williams, A Quinlan.
Backs: T O’Leary, T Morland, P Stringer, R O’Gara, P Warwick, J de Villiers, L Mafi, D Howlett, I Dowling,
