DOUG Howlett and Marcus Horan have both been named in the 29 strong Munster squad for the final game in the first phase of the RaboDirect PRO12 League against pace setters Ospreys at Thomond Park Stadium on Saturday (7.30pm).
Munster’s 14-29 reversal in Edinburgh on Friday cost them top spot in the RaboDirect PRO12, and ended their record breaking run of 14 successive victories in the tournament. The Munstermen have not lost at home in the tournament, however, since Ospreys visited Thomond Park on April 24, 2010.
Ospreys rose to the top of the RaboDirect PRO12 table for the first time since round 12 in season 2009/10 following their 26-21 home win over Connacht last Friday.
The Welshmen are going for a clean sweep of victories over Irish provinces this season, having already beaten Leinster, Connacht and Ulster.
The two teams met on five occasions last season in all competitions with Ospreys’ only win coming at Liberty Stadium in the European Cup.
The RWC call ups and injuries mean that Munster are without 17 players, 12 of those full internationals, yet a win on Saturday will leave them on top of the table
The defeat last weekend was disappointing for all fans, but Munster coach Tony Mc Gahan remains up beat.
”I think we’re in a stable position at this point in time. We’re four and one, we’re second in the table. It’s evidence that the competition is so close at this juncture with all clubs missing a number of players through injury or World Cup selection. So everyone’s taking points off each other, it hasn’t been kept to a closed shop every side’s winning. Ospreys are top of the table and deservedly so. But it’s a very evenly contested competition.”
Munster made 10 changes last week and duly lost. Mc Gahan, this week, defended the rotation.
“We’ve a squad of players here who have been training extremely hard over a long period of time. We had three trial games then six RaboDirect PRO12 League games, that’s a nine game block to get through. So we needed to make sure there was a lot of competition in the squad first off and that’s certainly been there. At the same time, we needed to make sure we were fresh and still running finishing off the six game block rather than fading over the same period of time”
Munster Squad v Ospreys: S Deasy; S Scanlon, D Howlett, S Zebo.J Murphy, D Barnes, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley; I Keatley, D Williams, P Stringer; M Horan, W du Preez, J Ryan, J Hayes, S Archer, BJ Botha, D Fogarty, S Henry, D Foley, I Nagle, M O’Driscoll, B Holland, T O’Donnell, D O’Callaghan, N Ronan, P O’Mahony, P Butler.
