Munster Are Unchanged For Welford Road Trip
Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has named an unchanged team for Saturday’s Champions Cup round 4 match against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road (kick-off 3.15pm).
There is one change on the replacements bench as loosehead prop James Cronin, who scored two tries on his return from injury for Munster ‘A’ last week, takes the place of big South African Thomas du Toit.
An outstanding team performance saw Munster inflict a heavy defeat on Leicester at Thomond Park last Saturday and, as expected, Rassie Erasmus has stuck with the same starting line-up.
CJ Stander, the man-of-the-match in Limerick, is set to make his 20th appearance in the Champions Cup having made a round-high 18 carries last time out.
Corkman Darren Sweetnam keeps his place on the right wing and has started all 13 of Munster’s games so far this season.
A daunting task awaits Munster – since the back-to-back fixtures were introduced in 1999, Leicester have never lost both games. However, Munster are the only side to beat Leicester more than once at Welford Road in Europe – in 2003 (quarter-final) and 2006 (pool match).
MUNSTER (v Leicester Tigers): Simon Zebo; Darren Sweetnam, Jaco Taute, Rory Scannell, Keith Earls; Tyler Bleyendaal, Conor Murray; Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, John Ryan, Donnacha Ryan, Billy Holland, Peter O’Mahony (capt), Tommy O’Donnell, CJ Stander.
Replacements: Rhys Marshall, James Cronin, Stephen Archer, Jean Kleyn, Jack O’Donoghue, Duncan Williams, Ian Keatley, Andrew Conway.