Five Changes

Five changes in personnel for Munster for the visit of Ospreys to Thomond Park Stadium on Saturday with three of those changes unsurprising in that they accommodate the return of internationals Ronan O’Gara and Dave Kilcoyne, and skipper Doug Howlett.

The other notable change is at scrum-half where opportunity knocks for Cathal Sheridan who makes his first competitive start for Munster while Rob Penney continues to rotate Garryowen clubmates Damien Varley and Mike Sherry, Varley getting the nod for the number 2 jersey this time around.

Penney keeps faith with the back five selected for Treviso even though Niall Ronan was back in the mix after 80 minutes with Shannon at the weekend but Sean Dougal is preferred as back-row back up to CJ Stander who is omitted from the match day squad.

Munster: F Jones; D Howlett, C Laulala, J Downey, D Hurley; R O’Gara, C Sheridan; D Kilcoyne, D Varley, S Archer; I Nagle, B Holland; P Butler, T O’Donnell, J Coughlan. Replacements: M Sherry, W du Preez, BJ Botha, D Foley, S Dougall, D Williams, I Keatley, I Dineen.