As a proud Leinster fan, I naturally have blue magic coursing through my veins, but I'll try not to be bias, well for the moment at least! The last two head to heads at Thomand Park have seen Munster come out on top, seeing them crowned the then Magner's League champions, they certainly wiped the smile off Leinster and Leinster fans' faces (there may have been tears....) and ruining my "Joe Schmidt walks into a bar" joke thoroughly! (For those that haven't heard it, the punchline is "I'll have a Heineken and a Magners please bartender",ruined!!)
But let the past be the past, and let's focus on the game in question, over 46,000 tickets have been sold, the third largest attendance in league history ,game on, last year's record attendance was 50,645 against Munster in the Aviva Stadium (2nd October 2010) and the previous record crowd of 48,000 attended 'The Last Stand' against Ulster in Lansdowne Road (31st December 2006). Cullen our captain leads the way, with Healy,Strauss and Ross smashing it up in the front row, two out of the three of those being the epi-centre of our scrums at the RWC, with Strauss being no slouch either, the boy works hard and I admire him for his supposed cheeky comeback to the "adorable" Chris Ashton during the HC final: Ashton-"Can't believe you got smashed by our 10"
Strauss-"Can't believe you're 10 points down...!!" Classic!
To be fair, Munster's front row are not what you'd like to meet walking down a lane way to Coppers on a Friday night, with two Bokkies Wian du Preez and new boy BJ Botha partnering Damian "for the XFactor" Varley (If you've seen the videos from the RWC you'll understand, the man can sing!) ,my advice to the Leinster boys is this, have your crash helmets ready because you're in for a rough ride.
Second row sees Cullen, Toner, The Tullow Tank and Jennings, with Heaslip bringing up the rear (no pun intended), opposing them are the tag team that are O'Callaghan and O'Connell, both played tremendously well during the RWC, I think I actually turned to my dad during the Aus game saying "Jaysus Paulie has the look of menace in his eyes, looks like he'd eat Chuck Norris right about now! Alongside them are Donnacha Ryan, Niall Ronan and Denis Leamy, ousting Peter O'Mahony and James Coughlan respectively. When two lads like Donners and Paulie gel and play well together, they're like an unstoppable force, when they don't play well, cracks start to appear,and penalties are dished out (usually because of Paulie's hand in the ruck!), this could be an advantage for Leinster and J10's kicking boots (although he seemed to misplaced those during the RWC,poor lad), let's be honest J10 plays better in a Leinster jersey than an Irish one, he could have kicked that ball through the eye of a needle during the HC final, when the boy is on form he is on form, the only thing is his opposition is ROG, the master of the boot, the winking wonderboy himself (take that Chris Ashton) he could kick the arse off a donkey and get way with it, I remember sitting in Thomand Park last season during the league, a very close game, Leinster give away a penalty, it was a tight one, I kept thinking "miss it you b"$%*rd", no such luck, when the pressure is on, ROG rises to the challenge, a very cool, calm and collected individual that he is.
Isaac Boss (doesn't he look great since he got rid of the mullet?) comes into the Leinster side to act as Sexton's wingman, with Conor Murray as scrum-half for Munster. With Reddan as replacement for Boss, the New Zealand born lad can get a good run out, especially as he had his ass parked on the bench for most of the RWC, Conor Murray on the opposite side had in my opinion, a great RWC, the youngster of the Irish pack, he dug in deep, even scoring a disallowed try against the Aussies, but can he withstand the maturity and experience of both Boss and Redser??
With Drico out due to a whack to the shoulder, it looks like McFadden has his spot as the lucky number 13 (let's just hope he isn't a triskaidekaphobic) alongside Gordon D'Arcy, making up the centre partnership. I'm just hoping Dorce is back on form, the guy hasn't played fluid rugby for a while, he fumbled a lot during the RWC and a cheeky try from him would boost the confidence no end.
Fitzgerald and Nacewa make up the wings, although I will miss Shaggy at 14 (I think it's his beautiful flowing dark locks), I know Nacewa can cause an upset, let's be honest, the man is a legend, Fiji's loss is our gain, he scored some absolute belters during the HC campaign and you would think the man had played GAA for Dublin the way he catches a high ball, add that with his speed and agility and it equals a real crowd pleaser with echos of "ISA! ISA! ISA!" all across the Aviva stadium. Rob "too beautiful" Kearney is back in action again as full-back, and he really is back with a bang it has to be said, let's just hope Johne Murphy doesn't try to mangle his pretty face tomorrow as the opposite 15, Murphy is a real livewire and he can easily match the fast paces of Kearns, there'll be a power struggle for possession between these two and Murphy will have the backing of Howlett, Chambers, Mafi, and Earls. Earlsy had an truly amazing RWC, he made it over the try line on numerous occasions, my favourite being his celebratory "let's all take the piss out of Chris Ashton" dive across the line, a pure dangerman against Leinster, the Moyross man has some superb pace and if he gets a sniff of freedom at all or sees any gaps left open by the (usually) solid Leinster defence then he'll take full advantage and I have no doubt that he'll be putting points on the board for Munster.
So the scene is set for yet another unpredictable squeaky bum clincher, the D4-Tress stands waiting with bated breath as to who will take the glory, it may only be a league match but it is so much more than that, I hope and pray that our Sexton's on fire tomorrow night, at the end of the day, this game could quite easily be won on penalty kicks alone and we need Jonny boy to be on top form. Whatever the outcome I know that no amount of Calpol six plus is going to quench the fever for the Aviva I have right now, the only cure is to see Leinster win on home turf (now I'm being bias!) and if they can't do that and Munster come out on top, well, fair enough I suppose, the main thing is, be it Leinster or be it Munster, one of them has to ruffle some feathers and get the Ospreys off the top of the table, come on lads, it's time to knock that bird off its pirch.... ;)
15: Rob Kearney
14: Isa Nacewa
13: Fergus McFadden
12: Gordon D'Arcy
11: Luke Fitzgerald
10: Jonathan Sexton
9: Isaac Boss
1: Cian Healy
2: Richardt Strauss
3: Mike Ross
4: Leo Cullen CAPTAIN
5: Devin Toner
6: Sean O'Brien
7: Shane Jennings
8: Jamie Heaslip
REPLACEMENTS:
16: Sean Cronin
17: Heinke van der Merwe
18: Jamie Hagan
19: Kevin McLaughlin
20: Rhys Ruddock
21: Eoin Reddan
22: Ian Madigan
23: Eoin O'Malley
MUNSTER: Johne Murphy; Doug Howlett, Will Chambers, Lifeimi Mafi, Keith Earls; Ronan O'Gara, Conor Murray; Wian du Preez, Damien Varley, BJ Botha; Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell CAPTAIN; Donnacha Ryan, Niall Ronan, Denis Leamy
REPLACEMENTS: Denis Fogarty, Marcus Horan, John Hayes, Peter O'Mahony, James Coughlan, Tomas O'Leary, Ian Keatley, Danny Barnes
REFEREE: Pascal Gauzere (FFR), ASSISTANT REFEREES: David Wilkinson, Simon McDowell (both IRFU), 4th OFFICIAL: John Montayne (Leinster Rugby Referees), 5th OFFICIAL: Tom Tuohy (Leinster Rugby Referees), TMO: Marshall Kilgore (IRFU)
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