Peter O’Mahony will kick off his season as Munster captain against Benetton Treviso on Friday night in round 3 of the RaboDirect PRO12 (kick-off 8.30pm local time/7.30pm Irish time).
The returning Peter O’Mahony, who captained Ireland on their summer tour to North America, is joined by 2013 Lion Simon Zebo who will also be making his seasonal debut on the left wing.
There is further positive news with the return of Keith Earls who is also named on the right wing for the first time since sustaining a shoulder injury against Clermont Auvergne in last April’s Heineken Cup semi-final.
There is a new back row for the Stadio di Monigo encounter with O’Mahony linking up with Niall Ronan and number 8 James Coughlan. Tommy O’Donnell is out of the squad following a knee injury sustained in last Friday’s bonus point win over Zebre.
In rotating the squad, head coach Rob Penney has opted for new half-backs this week with Duncan Williams and Ian Keatley replacing Cathal Sheridan and JJ Hanrahan in the starting line-up.
Please note that the Treviso v Munster game will not be televised live in Ireland, but RTÉ Two will show extended match highlights on Saturday evening from 6pm.
MUNSTER (v Benetton Treviso): Denis Hurley; Keith Earls, Casey Laulala, James Downey, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Duncan Williams; David Kilcoyne, Mike Sherry, Stephen Archer, Donnacha Ryan, Billy Holland, Peter O’Mahony (capt), Niall Ronan, James Coughlan.
Replacements: Damien Varley, James Cronin, John Ryan, Donncha O’Callaghan, CJ Stander, Cathal Sheridan, JJ Hanrahan, Ivan Dineen.
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