Munster look to build on perfect start with home win over Connacht

Fresh from last weekend’s eyebrow-raising victory over Leinster at Croke Park, Munster welcome Connacht to Thomond Park on Saturday evening hoping to maintain their perfect start to their URC campaign.

It was a thoroughly deserved and surprisingly comfortable victory for Clayton McMillan’s side. 

The win felt like a shift in the sand type of moment, but the Munster coaches and players will know that the momentum bubble will burst with a bang should they fail to follow it up with another interprovincial win this weekend in front of their home fans.

One of the more interesting stats to emerge from the win over Leinster was the fact that the top 13 tacklers on the night were all wearing Munster red. 

COSTLY

That clearly illustrates the aggression, physicality and intensity that Munster brought to proceedings, but it also tells us that Munster went into the red last Saturday in terms of effort and there is every chance they could pay for those exertions this week.

The tie was extremely attritional with Brian Gleeson going off after his brilliant try with a fractured elbow, while Edwin Edogbo stayed in the dressing room at half-time having failed a HIA. These issues mean the powerful young pair now miss out on travelling with the Irish squad to Chicago for the meeting with the All Blacks.

Diarmuid Barron injured his neck, Andrew Smith suffered an early hamstring injury, while scrum halves Ethan Coughlan and Paddy Patterson also had issues. McMillan will certainly be hoping his nines make a speedy recovery.

With tired and broken bodies, the side requires freshening. 

The Munster A team came back from 26-0 down to draw 26-26 at Old Belvedere on Saturday, with many players putting their hands up for selection, including a first sighting of Roman Salanoa in Munster colours in two and a half years, while the likes of Mike Haley, Craig Casey, Diarmuid Kilgallon and Ruadhan Quinn will be hoping to be good to go.

Connacht had begun the Stuart Lancaster regime well with two wins over Zebre and Benetton, but their momentum was stunted when their third round tie against the Scarlets was postponed, with them then losing their last two against Cardiff and the Bulls.

They will have deemed themselves unlucky to have lost 27-28 to the Bulls last week. 

They had to play for 20 minutes with 14 men after Josh Murphy’s sending off, and they had to endure the agony of watching Sean Naughton’s late conversion to win it go the wrong side of the posts.

Munster do not play in this competition again until they host fellow table toppers the Stormers on 29 November so it is crucial that they can carry their current momentum into that break with a win.