And when the sides last met in Thomond Park Stadium on the December night that John Hayes bade goodbye to rugby, although they won 24-9, it might have been another one score game had Niall O'Connor been a little more accurate with the placed ball.

It could be argued that Munster will arrive in a frail state of mind after that reversal last time out against Aironi whilst there no argument but that they have the most to lose if the result goes against them tonight.

The loss in Italy coupled with Ospreys shock win last nigh in the RDS leaves Tony McGahan's side in third place in the table and Ulster, Glasgow Warriors and whoever wins between the Blues and Scarlets at the Cardiff City Stadium today, queueing up behind to have a pop.

And yes Munster have home advantage in three of their last four games but those three games are against top notch opponents  (Leinster, Warriors, Ulster) with play off ambitions of their own. So the narrow margins that will decide who progresses to the play offs could ultimately be down to tonight's result.

The changes McGahan makes are routine enough in line with what he's been doing, and it has to be said successfully, throughout this RaboDirect PRO12 campaign.

Tomas O'Leary & Damien Varley - unavaliable for the Aironi game - James Coughlan, Johne Murphy (both rested that weekend) are back in the starting XV and should provide the oomph that was so patently missing that day.

Former Connacht 10, Ian Keatley who was the chief architect of Connacht's downfall in Limerick in December, starts alongside O'Leary and David Wallace will continue to get much needed game time under his belt.

Munster: F Jones; D Hurley, J Murphy, L Mafi, S Zebo; I Keatley, T O’Leary; W du Preez, D Varley, BJ Botha; I Nagle, M O’Driscoll (capt), Dave O’Callaghan, D Wallace, J Coughlan. Replacements: M Sherry, M Horan, S Archer, B Holland, T O’Donnell, D Williams, S Deasy, L O’Dea.

Connacht: G Duffy (Capt); K Tonetti, E Griffin, H Fa’afili, T O’Halloran; M Nikora, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, E Reynecke, R Loughney, M Swift, M McCarthy, M Kearney, R Ofisa, J Muldoon. Replacements: A Flavin, F Bealham, R Ah You, E McKeon, E Grace, P O’Donohoe, M Jarvis, D McSharry.

Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU)