THE RETURN TO fitness of both Keith Earls and Conor Murray provides Munster with a welcome fillip heading into their Pro14 quarter-final against Benetton at Thomond Park on Saturday afternoon [KO 3pm, eir Sport/Premier Sports].
Earls, who hasn’t played since the European quarter-final win over Edinburgh, has recovered from a troublesome thigh injury to start on the left wing, while Murray has been passed fit after pulling up with neck stiffness last weekend.
The Ireland scrum-half was a last-minute withdrawal from the team to face Connacht but resumes his half-back pairing with Tyler Bleyendaal for the play-offs in the continued absence of Joey Carbery.
Johann van Graan has made three changes in personnel from Connacht, with the other alteration seeing Chris Farrell return to midfield with Dan Goggin the man to drop down to the bench.
The pack remains unchanged as Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell and Stephen Archer pack down in the front row, with Jean Kleyn and Tadhg Beirne in the engine room and Peter O’Mahony, Chris Cloete and CJ Stander completing the side in the back row.
Benetton, meanwhile, have made four changes to their XV for their first-ever Pro14 play-off game, with Italian out-half Tommaso Allan captaining Kieran Crowley’s side for the trip to Limerick.
Munster:
15. Mike Haley
14. Andrew Conway
13. Chris Farrell
12. Rory Scannell
11. Keith Earls
10. Tyler Bleyendaal
9. Conor Murray
1. Dave Kilcoyne
2. Niall Scannell
3. Stephen Archer
4. Jean Kleyn
5. Tadhg Beirne
6. Peter O’Mahony (captain)
7. Chris Cloete
8. CJ Stander.
Replacements:
16. Kevin O’Byrne
17. Jeremy Loughman
18. John Ryan
19. Billy Holland
20. Arno Botha
21. Alby Mathewson
22. JJ Hanrahan
23. Dan Goggin.
Benetton:
15. Jayden Hayward
14. Ratuva Tavuyara
13. Marco Zanon
12. Luca Morisi
11. Monty Ioane
10. Tommaso Allan (captain)
9. Dewaldt Duvenage
1. Nicola Quaglio
2. Luca Bigi
3. Marco Riccioni
4. Marco Lazzaroni
5. Federico Ruzza
6. Sebastian Negri
7. Abraham Steyn
8. Toa Halafihi.
Replacements:
16. Hame Faiva
17. Derrick Appiah
18. Tiziano Pasquali
19. Irné Herbst
20. Dean Budd
21. Tito Tebaldi
22. Antonio Rizzi
23. Alberto Sgarbi.
Referee: Nigel Owens [WRU].
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to discuss all the week’s rugby news.:
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
