Their itinerary was somewhat disrupted by the delay for the Limerick contingent whose Aer Lingus flight was delayed, leaving them arrive an hour and a half later than planned and later than their Cork colleagues.

The Shannon flight eventually touched down at a wet and windy Bristol Airport at 6.25 where Limerick and Cork groups joined for the onward two hour trip to Swansea.

Meanwhile the mercurial Shane Williams has been named in a strong Ospreys side that also sees openside flanker Justin Tipuric recovered from a back problem to make his 50th appearance while Samoan scrum-half Khan Fotuali'i has been given the nod ahead of rising Wales star Rhys Webb at number nine.

Their coach, Steve Tandy, who earlier in the week was talking about his side's knack of beating Munster appears to have become a little more circumspect, now saying. "It’s going to be a tough old battle between two teams who know each other very well. Two teams who will have to slug it out to get control out there, but it should be a tight, edgy affair as games between the Ospreys and Munster always are.

"We’ll have our home support behind us and they’ll have an important part to play as well, as we’ll need to make full use of every advantage we can get.”

Ospreys: R Fussell; H Dirksen, A Bishop, A Beck, S Williams; D Biggar, K Fotuali’i; P James, R Hibbard, A Jones, A Wyn Jones (Capt), I Evans, R Jones, J Bearman, J Tipuric Replacements: S Baldwin, R Bevington, A Jarvis, J King, T Smith, R Webb, M Morgan, T Isaacs.