MUNSTER have named the expected starting fifteen for this weekend’s clash with Edinburgh in the Heineken Cup. Simon Zebo, Donncha O’Callaghan, Peter O’Mahony and BJ Botha all start, while Damien Varley taking over at hooker from Mike Sherry. Sherry, an injury doubt along with Conor Murray, have both come through training today and are included in the 22.
Munster Team: Munster XV: Jones; Howlett capt, Earls, Downey, Zebo; ROG, Murray; Kilcoyne, Varley, Botha; D O’Callaghan, Ryan; POM, TOD, Coughlan. Replacements: M Sherry, W du Preez, S Archer, B Holland, P Butler, D Williams, I Keatley, C Laulala.
Meanwhile, Ian Costello takes the Munster ‘A’ side to Wales for the Port Talbot meeting with Aberavon, that includes six players with Heineken Cup experience in addition to CJ Stander who would almost certainly would have been in the current European squad only for sustaining a hand injury in his second outing since arriving from South Africa. Stander is part of a formidable looking back row that includes Sean Dougall – he captains the side – and Dave O’Callaghan for a game that Munster need to win to keep control of Pool 7.
And Costello can expect a serious examination at the Talbot Athletic ground tomorrow. When the sides met in Tralee RFC in October, the Welsh led 8-7 at half time and extended that lead with an early second half penalty.
However once Munster got into their rhythm tries from Barry O’Mahony and his brother Ronan eased them to a 19-11 victory.
Of that side missing for tomorrow’s clash through injury is Barry O’Mahony as well as another to impress that day Cian Bohane, skipper that day in Tralee Sean Henry who travels with the senior side to Edinburgh and Tommy O’Donnell who starts in that game at Murrayfield.
First year academy players Brian Haugh and Darren Sweetnam named in the replacements are included in a B&I Cup squad for the first time.
Munster: D Hurley; D Barnes, S Deasy, I Dineen, R O’Mahony; JJ Hanrahan, C Sheridan; J Cronin, D Casey, A Cotter; D Foley, I Nagle; Dave O’Callaghan, S Dougall, CJ Stander. Replacements: N Scannell, C Condon, B Hayes, R Murphy, B Haugh, J Holland, D Sweetnam.
Some interesting notes:
Heineken Cup quarter-finals – commercial value
• Home clubs are incentivised by ERC to move to bigger venues as they will benefit from an increase from 50% to 65% share of match revenue.
• A total of 22 Heineken Cup quarter-finals have been moved by the home clubs to larger venues with Perpignan v Toulon at the Olympic Stadium, Barcelona (2010/11) holding the quarter-final record attendance of 55,000.
• The average attendance for the eight quarter-finals over the past two seasons was 35,300.
• On average €1m (euro) net profit per quarter-final in the past two seasons was shared by the two clubs in each quarter-final from ticket sales and hospitality.
• Each spot in the knockout stages will earn that club’s country in the region of €450,000 (euro), with an estimated €3.5m (euro) in meritocracy payments shared from quarter-finals alone.
• In total over €6.3m (euro) in meritocracy payments will be shared by the countries of the clubs who reach the Heineken Cup knockout stages.
Home or Away: Securing a home quarter-final can greatly increase a club’s chances of progressing to the semi-finals with 72.5% home win rate over the past 10 seasons.
