Rugby Celtic Cup newsAlthough it appears to be one of the season's best kept secrets, and the 5.30 kick-off is hardly conducive to ensuring the crowd it deserves, Sunday's Celtic Cup semi-final could be one of season's best matches.
Nine of the 10 home-based Irish Lions have been named in Sunday's starting line-ups; the exception being Ronan O'Gara, who could be available for the final the following Saturday at the same venue were Munster to get there.
The return of Denis Hickie and Shane Horgan to flank Gordon D'Arcy and Brian O'Driscoll in an all-singing, all-dancing, all-Lions three-quarter line, as well as Malcolm O'Kelly to the second row, would appear to be something of a statement of intent.
Munster certainly can't say Leinster aren't treating them with the utmost respect, although Gerry Murphy maintained the changes were merely part of the rotation policy which sees Emmet Byrne return for Ricky Nebbett at tighthead and Brian O'Meara, Felipe Contepomi and David Quinlan on the bench ahead of Brian O'Riordan, Kieran Lewis and Gary Brown, all involved in the last two games. Due to a doubt about Eric Miller (thumb), the forward replacements will be finalised later.
Facing them will be Munster's other three Lions, John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell in an unchanged line-up, with Gordon McIlwham returning to the bench ahead of Eugene McGovern.
Murphy viewed the video tape of Munster's 24-14 win over Edinburgh and said: "What can you say about Munster-Leinster matches? It'll be the normal challenge. We're looking forward to playing them. One of the problems is everybody knows each other so well and sometimes that can negate the game but I don't think that's going to happen."
An unofficial Irish championship decider of sorts, this end-of-season bonus offers a chance for redemption of sorts after the anti-climactic defeats in the quarter-finals of the European Cup, although Murphy maintains Leinster have not had a bad season.
"In fact, if you look at the season overall, we've actually had a very good season. We were the top European qualifiers and we were third in the Celtic League. We were beaten (by Leicester) on the day by a far better team and we've no problem with that at all. One of our ambitions from day one was to get a home quarter-final (in the Celtic Cup) and all the players certainly want to win it."
Sunday's semi-final will mark either the penultimate or concluding game for some. Victor Costello, who falls into that category, spoke of Leinster's happy camp and a desire to milk every last drop out of the season.
"I played against Munster in Thomond Park 10 years ago when we beat them in an interpro down there with, I think, a pushover try near the end and certainly I want to beat them this weekend. Everyone wants a bite, apart from the fact that it's the old enemy.
"When you play against Munster sometimes it can be checkmate because everyone knows each other, but if you get across that bridge then hopefully, you can go on and win the game."
One of the curiosities of this weekend's semi-final venues, as Alan Gaffney noted, is "you finish first (the Ospreys) and second (Munster) across the line and you end up playing away from home in the semi-finals. I don't know quite how that works but that's the nature of this competition.
"But going up to Leinster is fine, it doesn't hold any fears for the Munster boys. The majority of these guys don't play up there all that regularly, even though we have a few internationals, but a lot of them might only play there once every year or two.
"We know what to expect and it should be some game. I just hope the game develops and is a contest. Obviously, we'd love to win the game. We know Leinster are a good side. They've been knocked from pillar to post over what they've done and not done in recent times but when you look at their line-up, it's a fairly strong backline," Gaffney noted, with deliberate understatement.
Munster are not enamoured with either their allocation of tickets (scattered to all four corners of the ground rather than together in one half of the West Stand, a la schools' cup matches) or their paltry 50 complimentary tickets. Nor will CIE's decision to provide a special train from Limerick and Cork to and from Dublin on Sunday necessarily swell the Red Army's presence, with no alcohol served.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, D Hickie; D Holwell, G Easterby; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, E Byrne, L Cullen, M O'Kelly, D Dillon, K Gleeson, V Costello. Replacements (from): R Nebbett, J Lyne, D Blaney, B Gissing, S Jennings, E Miller, A McCullen, B O'Meara, F Contepomi, D Quinlan.
MUNSTER: S Payne; J Kelly, M Mullins, R Henderson, A Horgan; P Burke, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, A Quinlan, D Wallace, A Foley (capt). Replacements: J Flannery, G McIlwham, T Hogan, D Leamy, M Prendergast, P Devlin, J Manning, P Devlin.
