Munster v Crusaders: Cracking game in store despite missing stars at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh

URC champions Munster host Super Rugby winners the Crusaders at the newly christened SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh this evening (5pm), in what is expected to be a feisty clash of the champions, despite the fixture being a glorified friendly.

Former Munster head coach Rob Penney, who was at the helm at Thomond Park from 2012 to 2014, brings a 36-man squad from Christchurch to Cork for this historic clash, although it is noticeable that many of the bigger All Black names were not part of the travelling party of the 12-time Super Rugby winners.

The likes of Scott Barrett, Ethan Blackadder, Sevu Reece, Joe Moody, David Havili, Codie Taylor and Will Jordan will not get to say they togged out at the home of Cork GAA, but fellow All Blacks Ryan Crotty, Owen Franks and George Bower will, while Welsh and English internationals Leigh Halfpenny and Willi Heinz will also feature for what is expected to be an extremely competitive Crusaders line-up.

For Munster it feels like anyone who is fit and available gets a game this weekend, with Paddy Patterson, John Hodnett and Simon Zebo the latest players to join the crippling injury list, with Patterson out for the season, Hodnett out for at least eight weeks and Zebo awaiting further scans on his knee injury.

All three were instrumental in the brilliant 28-14 victory over South Africa A at this venue just over fourteen months ago. 

Patterson was awarded the man of the match gong and Zebo scored a crucial try, but it will have to be someone else to get the job done this time around.

Oli Jager only moved from the Crusaders to Munster on 1 December, so he will be extremely eager to play a big part in this one against his former teammates.  He has been released from Andy Farrell’s Six Nations Irish camp so is expected to feature, while there is genuine hope that other recently injured players might also have some involvement.

Regardless of the fact that a lot of the top players from both clubs will be absent, it is expected to be a fantastic and unique occasion, and it is a genuine opportunity for young players from both clubs to bag the experience of playing in a huge game in front of a crowd of over 40,000.

GOOD EXPERIENCE

Minutes for players like Ethan Coughlan, Tony Butler, Patrick Campbell and Ruadhan Quinn in games like this are invaluable and can be the type of game that can be the launching pad of a professional career.

Munster have built a lot of their history and aura around games against touring sides from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in the past, and while this encounter is unlikely to rival the scalping of the All Blacks at Thomond Park in 1978, it still has all the ingredients to be an enjoyable occasion, and perhaps the first of many such trips by club sides across hemispheres to play in these ‘battle of the champions’ fixtures.