Munster ready to usurp Kings
A powerful looking Munster side — including five players released back to the province by Joe Schmidt — are hot favourites to crush South Africa’s Southern Kings in tonight’s Guinness PRO14 tie at Musgrave Park.
Johann van Graan has paid little heed to the records of the two sides when picking his team.
Whereas Munster top Conference A with 48 points and have won 10 of their 14 games, the visitors languish at the bottom of Conference B with only two victories this season.
Andrew Conway, Chris Farrell, Niall Scannell, John Ryan and Billy Holland return from their time with the national side.
Chris Cloete makes his first appearance since suffering a nasty neck injury against Leinster in December and he is joined in a powerful looking pack by his fellow South Africans Jean Kleyn and Arno Botha while Tyler Bleyendaal captains the side from out-half.
The team and replacement panel are full of other Munster regulars making the hosts odds on favourites. However, van Graan doesn’t see things as being so clear cut: “To be fair to the Kings, I think the last few weeks they have really played well. They have pushed the Cheetahs close, they beat Edinburgh, they beat Glasgow earlier in the season.
“A lot of PRO14 teams struggle to do that. I think the thing that stands out is their speed. They score most of their tries from turnovers so if you leak a turnover, especially on that 4G pitch, you are going to pay the price.
"It is a different mindset. It is tough for our teams to go into the heat in South Africa and it is difficult for them to travel from the heat up to the cold. But it will be a great game of rugby under the lights.
We have had three weeks where we didn’t have any rugby and we’ll have to go out there and work to get a positive result.
The Kings arrived in Cork on Tuesday after a 26-hour journey from Port Elizabeth and the weather has been relatively benign causing their captain John-Charles Astle to feel hopeful about the outcome of tonight’s clash.
They also play Leinster and Cardiff over the next couple of weeks.
The side’s morale is lifted by the presence of the highly rated Bader Pretorious for his first start at out-half.
The 21-year-old made his debut from the bench in the team’s 25-21 victory over Edinburgh last month and tonight plays in his third match for the visitors.
In the forwards pack, Stephan de Wit also makes a return to the starting XV in the place of the suspended CJ Velleman at openside flanker.
The rest of the starting team remains the same as held the Cheetahs to a 36-40 defeat in their last outing.
“Munster is a very clinical side and on top of Conference A with clinical, good players who know how to do their job,” Kings skipper Astle acknowledged.
“The aim of the tour after we have had a few good games in the past few weeks is to improve on that. Getting a good start is key.”
In spite of van Graan’s cautionary words and the sense of optimism in the Kings camp, anything other than a bonus point victory for Munster would come as a major shock for the Red Army and seriously damage the team’s prospects of a home semi-final in the Pro 14 later in the season.
M Haley; A Conway, C Farrell, R Scannell, D Sweetnam; T Bleyendaal capt, N Cronin; J Loughman, N Scannell, J Ryan, J Kleyn, B Holland, F Wycherley, C Cloete, A Botha.
R Marshall, L O’Connor, S Archer, D O’Shea, G Coombes, A Mathewson, JJ Hanrahan, D Goggin.
M Banda; T Penxe, M Rokoua, B Klaassen, B Basson; B Pretorius, S Ungerer; S Ferreira, M Willemse, DJ Terblanche, A Vanschalkyk, J C Astle capt, S De Wilt, M Bunger, R Lerm.
A Van Rooyen, A Tsakhweni, P Scholz, S Greef, A Ntsila, S Pretorius, T Kruger, U Beyers.
A Piardi (Italy).
