Cardiff v Munster Arms Park, 7.30Munster coach Declan Kidney will wait until today's captain's run in Cardiff before confirming three of his back line for tonight's Celtic League clash.
Injuries have meant he has had to delay naming a fullback, centre and outhalf. Shaun Payne, Trevor Halstead and Ronan O'Gara filled those roles in the Heineken European Cup win over Castres last weekend. Only the latter is unavailable and it appears a straight fight between New Zealand-born Jeremy Manning, a replacement the last day, and Paul Burke for that particular berth.
If either Payne or Halstead are ruled out then Barry Murphy is the likely beneficiary.
There are only three survivors from the pack that started against Castres, hooker Jerry Flannery, secondrow Mick O'Driscoll and flanker David Wallace. The team will be captained by Stephen Keogh. Munster are without their eight Irish squad players.
David Young, Cardiff's director of coaching, has included new signing Roger Warren in the team but was unable to call upon Mike Phillips, Rhys Thomas, Nick Robinson, Chris Czekaj, Martyn Williams, Robert Sidoli, Robin Sowden-Taylor and John Yapp, all of whom were selected for the Wales squad for the autumn Tests.
Munster will be hoping to end an unhappy sequence of results as on each of their four previous visits to the Arms Park, two against Cardiff RFC and two against the Blues, they have lost.
CARDIFF: R Warren; R Williams, J Robinson, M Stcherbina, C Morgan; L Thomas, R Powell; M Jones, G Williams, B Evans; D Jones, J Goode; K Schubert, M Molitika, A Powell. Replacements: N Llewelyn, D Goodfield, C Quinnell, M Lewis, W Evans, T Davies, D Dewdney.
MUNSTER: AN Other; J Kelly, G Connolly, AN Other, A Pitout; AN Other, T O'Leary; F Roche, J Flannery, F Pucciarriello; T Hogan, M O'Driscoll; J O'Sullivan, D Wallace, S Keogh (capt). Replacements (from): T Buckley, E McGovern, D Fogarty, S O'Connor, F Cogan, J O'Connor, M Prendergast, P Burke, J Manning, T Halstead, B Murphy, S Payne, M Lawlor.
Referee: Peter Allan (SRU).
Previous meetings - November 2003 (CL) at Musgrave Park: Munster 31Cardiff Blues 10; April 2004 (CL) at Arms Park: Cardiff Blues 60 Munster 14; October 2004 (CL) at Thomond Park: Munster 49 Cardiff Blues 18; March 2005 (CL) at Arms Park: Cardiff Blues 30 Munster 20.
Leading points scorers: Cardiff - Nick Robinson 62. Munster - Ronan O'Gara 41.
Leading try scorers: Cardiff - Maama Molitika, Craig Morgan 2 each. Munster - Gary Connolly, Marcus Horan, Anthony Horgan, John Kelly 2 each.
Verdict: Munster to win.
