The Blues have won all but two of the last 15 meetings – including seven of the last eight – and have 22 players in Ireland’s squad that is heading to Chicago next week
Leinster boss Leo Cullen claims the URC champions will be the team doing the chasing when they face Munster at Croke Park. The fixture won’t be the record sell-out it was a year ago, when Leinster raced into a three-try lead that their rivals couldn’t haul back, but there will still be over 50,000 at GAA HQ to witness the latest duel.
The Blues have won all but two of the last 15 meetings – including seven of the last eight – and have 22 players in Ireland’s squad that is heading to Chicago next week ahead of the All Blacks clash compared to the four Munster men going. Leinster also has 13 players involved today who were with the British and Irish Lions in Australia to Munster’s one – Tadhg Beirne, who will make his first appearance of the season.
As a consequence, Cullen insists, there are plenty of motivating factors for Munster counterpart Clayton McMillan to use. “Absolutely, yeah, and that’s the thing for us to understand. Listen, their motivation will be through the roof,” he said.
“Our guys need to understand what’s coming from the opposition, and it’s making sure we have a proper plan to be able to deal with that, which we discussed this week and tried to implement.”
The table tells the story, Cullen maintains, with Munster on three victories at the start of the new URC season to Leinster’s solitary one.
Yet that doesn’t tell the full tale. Leinster got off to an awful start in losing 35-0 to the Stormers but went close at the Bulls before dismissing the Sharks last week.
Munster began well with a dominant win at Scarlets but struggled over the line against Cardiff in Limerick and then Edinburgh in Cork last week.
“They’ve still got wins on the board, which we don’t have,” argued Cullen. “Probably a lot of the narrative is around national selection and all that, and those guys trying to chase us.
“You just pull up the league table and it should be pretty clear, we’re chasing them – so we need to get to where they are currently and pass them.
“What I’m touching on is finishing a more seemingly advantageous position at the end of the season, which is at the end of 18 rounds, three down, 15 to go. Unfortunately it’s as simple as that. We need to battle out for every single point.
“We’re hunting them down now, so we need to make sure we have that mindset going into the game – we know they will try to say they’re trying to do the other way around.
“There’s lots of good players there, they have probably a bit better cohesion than we have, just because of the factors that we have at play with whatever, x amount of guys with the Lions, it just being a slower start to the season.
“It’s always a great game, isn’t it? Where it sits now, it’s right over to some serious stuff now.”
Where is the game being played?
The game is being played at Croke Park, Dublin
What time is kick off?
The kick off is at 5.15pm on Saturday
Where can I watch the game?
The game is live on TG4 and Premier Sports 1 and will be streamed live on www.URC.TV
Who is the referee?
Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
Betting Odds?
Leinster: 1/12
Draw: 35/1
Munster: 7/1
Team news
Leinster Rugby: Jamie Osborne, Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe, Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park, Paddy McCarthy, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong, RG Snyman, James Ryan, Alex Soroka, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan (capt)
Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Andrew Porter, Thomas Clarkson, Brian Deeny, Max Deegan, Scott Penny, Fintan Gunne, Ciarán Frawley
Munster Rugby: Shane Daly, Andrew Smith, Tom Farrell, Dan Kelly, Thaakir Abrahams, Jack Crowley, Ethan Coughlan, Michael Milne, Diarmuid Barron, John Ryan, Edwin Edogbo, Fineen Wycherley, Tadhg Beirne (capt), Jack O’Donoghue, Brian Gleeson
Replacements: Lee Barron, Jeremy Loughman, Ronan Foxe, Jean Kleyn, Gavin Coombes, Paddy Patterson, JJ Hanrahan, Alex Nankivell
#time #channel #Leinster #Ulster #URC #today
