This weekend, rugby union returns to the Aviva Stadium. Leinster play their first game at the home of Irish rugby this year against storied rivals, Munster.
Of course, the last time these two teams met was that titanic URC semi final, with Jack Crowley's late drop goal the decisive moment. Leinster have undergone probably their biggest player and staff turnover since Joe Schmidt and Brian O'Driscoll departed within a year of each other. After an opening day drubbing at the hands of Glasgow Warriors, they have rebuilt and shown themselves to still be an immense force in this league. Last week saw the return of their heaviest hitters in a 54-5 win over the Scarlets, and this week they have returned a very strong matchday 23. There's no place for last week's starting fly half, Sam Prendergast, with Ciaran Frawley covering 10 on a bench where Leo Cullen has opted for a 6-2 split. Robbie Henshaw returns in the centre as one of Leinster's best players so far this season, Jamie Osborne also misses out. It is a pack that could arguably be the starting eight for Ireland in a test match, with Jack Conan returning and Tadhg Furlong getting his first start of the season after getting half an hour off the bench last week.
📥 | 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐌𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫!
Here is the #LeinsterRugby team to face Munster tomorrow evening in the #BKTURC#MUNvLEI #FromTheGroundUp pic.twitter.com/hqBaAUrG8B— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) November 24, 2023
Munster Team News
Munster have backed experience this week with a huge moment for veteran prop Stephen Archer, who will receive his 269th cap for Munster. This will make him Munster's most capped player ever, overtaking the legendary, Donnacha O'Callaghan. Also returning to the starting XV are two men with over 340 caps for Munster between them, Simon Zebo and Rory Scannell. In a week where, after 11 years of service in the role, Peter O'Mahony has stepped down as captain of Munster, much of the media attention in the build up has been looking ahead to who will take over the job. While names such as Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey and the returning Jean Kleyn have been discussed this week, it is Diarmuid Barron who 'gets the arm band' this week. Munster have stocked up heavily for a battle at line out time with the 6'9, Thomas Ahern, getting a start at 6. However, there is no place for a couple of Munster's most impressive players this season in Alex Nankivell and Edwin Edogbo. With effectively three second rows starting, both Brian Gleeson and Alex Kendellan find themselves ready to make an impact off the bench.
The Munster team is in 🤩
6⃣ changes as Diarmuid Barron captains the side with Zebo, Rory Scannell, Archie, JK & Tom Ahern all starting.
Archie becomes our most-capped player of all-time on his 269th Munster appearance.
Click the pic for full details.#LEIvMUN #SUAF 🔴— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) November 24, 2023
Interestingly - given the big news this week from Munster - Diarmuid Barron has been named captain for the second week running.
Stephen Ferris on O'Mahony's captaincy decision
Speaking to Balls.ie during the week, Stephen Ferris said he thought the timing of O'Mahony's announcement was 'strange'
It's a strange one for Pete to sort of drop the captaincy just after he's captained the team mid season, still under a national contract with the IRFU, still wanting to probably play for Ireland in a Six Nations. Or is there a club who is potentially interested in him and he's able to make a move in the next couple of months?
He went on to state there could be other motives for moving away from the captaincy role.
With captaincy comes a lot more time and effort. A lot more responsibility. Pete isn't the type of guy to shy away from that but after such a strenuous, mentally tough Rugby World Cup maybe he just wants to enjoy his rugby a little bit more and just go out there and play. You know, not have to be the one that's having to do the captain's meetings on a Thursday and give the team talks before games and have to get all the boys motivated. Maybe he will just be able to do that by his actions on the pitch.
As for successors, Tadhg Beirne is a popular choice. While Ferris is certain of his brilliance, he's not certain if he's an obvious captain:
That's something Tadhg Beirne does really well, I think. You never see him when the cameras panning around, that he's the one giving out all the instructions or motivating the lads in the circle. He just gets on with his own thing, doesn't he? He floats through a game, plays brilliantly well, 7,8,9 out of 10 every week. I'm just not sure of his captaincy credentials. He might have them. Graham Rowntree might have them.
Ferris seemed certain that Leinster will be out for revenge on Saturday.
45,000 tickets already sold apparently, I think Leinster will go full boar. Really strong squad, as will Munster but Munster haven't hit their straps what so ever this season. 3 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss and haven't played particularly well. That might please Graham Rowntree, that they're sitting 6th in the table and they haven't really fired too many shots.
They scored 31 points in the first game against Sharks but apart from that, he'll be looking for a huge reaction from his team. After a 10-3 win against the Stormers, unconvincing, in front of a poor enough crowd down in Thomond Park.
I'm sure Peter O'Mahony and the captaincy will be grabbing the headlines but I think Leinster will be looking to create a few of their own headlines.
