RUGBY: Edward Newmantalks to some of the leading characters involved in tomorrow's mouth-watering clash between Munster and Sale Sharks

DRIVING WIND and rain circled the streets of Cork yesterday with similar conditions forecast for tomorrow’s mouth-watering Anglo-Irish battle between Munster and Sale Sharks at Thomond Park, the scene of the Sharks greatest humiliation, a 31-9 humbling in the 2005/06 Heineken Cup.

As much as Munster’s form has been the subject of robust debate down south, so too has been their style of play, but when head coach Tony McGahan described training this week as being “very traditional”, he may have hinted at the prospect of a return to a more old-style Munster performance in expectant wintry conditions – or as much as can be allowed within the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs).

More than anything, Munster’s most potent attacking weapon of old – the rolling maul – has been blunted by these new experiments, but since Sale were last in town, much else has changed in the interim: a new stadium of which visiting teams no longer seem intimidated, a new coach trying to find a balance between Munster’s running game and what has best served the province traditionally in the past.

And, most recently, Munster’s recent erratic form and dips that included two defeats to Connacht and Ulster seemed to have been flushed out of the system by virtue of an encouraging win over Ospreys last weekend.

However, despite the upheavals of recent weeks, McGahan was bullish about his team’s prospects tomorrow.

“You’d always like to be coming in off the back of four or five straight big results and when you’ve played exceptional rugby. That’s not the case – it’s a long season. I think more importantly for this particular game, whatever has happened previously with the Heineken Cup and the previous four-five games in the Magners League, is irrelevant. This is an 80-minute performance that is put on paper at 8 o’clock this Friday evening.

“Everything is torn up. Everything is written off the book. Whether you’re playing as well as you can or as bad as you can, if you turn up for 80 minutes prepared to do the work, prepared to so what ever is necessary to get a result, then you’ll get it. Nothing else matters but the result this week.”

As ever, Munster’s best form can be gauged not just by the presence of their talisman Paul O’Connell, but by the Heineken Cup’s highest points scorer (1,001 points and counting), Ronan O’Gara. “Ronan’s 100 per cent fighting fit and ready to go,” said McGahan after fears that the outhalf’s hamstring might preclude him from inclusion in the 26-man squad from which the match-day 22 will be named at midday today.

Other front-liners are also fit to start, including Marcus Horan, Keith Earls and Paul Warwick, the latter expected to start at fullback allowing Earls move to outside centre in a backline that will replicate the one that helped beat Sale in round two last October.

McGahan has close to a fully-fit sqaud available and said a step-up in intensity this week in training has focused the minds ahead of season-defining back-to-back Heineken Cup matches.

“We think that with the conditions that we’ve trained in and the quality of training that we’ve done, we’ve certainly given ourselves every opportunity to get a result.”

Munster’s relatively high rate of conceding penalties has been their Achilles heel all season, and was evident again last week in Swansea. When Munster attacked, they were being pinged, a source of frustration for McGahan.

“Unfortunately I think that’s the way a lot of the game is being played at the moment – the attacking side is getting refereed before the defensive side. We’ve looked at addressing that throughout the season. It hasn’t been for the last week – it’s being a continuing effect. We’re not the only side where those penalties are going against.”

Another hot topic is the extra-policing by referees at the breakdown though with Munster’s lucky charm, Nigel Owens, the man in the middle against Sale, the hope is that common sense will prevail here. Though O’Connell would like Munster to play more “cleverly” in his area.

“You can look at any ruck and you can give two or three penalties to either team for any number of things,” said the captain.

“It’s hard to say – it’s something we do need to be a little bit more clever on, but that’s something we’ve always been in terms of the rules, in terms of how we play. We’ve always been very clever so it’s something we need to master. It’s the careless, the blatant off-your-feet penalties that are being pulled. I don’t think it’s always as bad as some people are making it out to be.”

O’Connell also spoke on the absence of the maul under the ELVs and would welcome its return, but a wide-ranging press conference also made important reference to suggestions that visiting teams to the new Thomond Park are no longer intimidated by the “Thomond factor”. O’Connell offered interesting insight, admitting that Munster haven’t been as “formidable” in their new surroundings.

“I think our results would show that we, the players, haven’t made it the fortress it once was. It was only ever a stadium. The supporters are always fabulous. I look back at the guys I grew up watching playing and it was always about the players who took the field that made the place. The results that occurred there, I think it was about the players who took the field, the honesty they played with and the respect they showed to the supporters that were paying the money to come.

“It was always first and foremost the players’ job to make it what it was and, maybe, a little bit, we haven’t had that in the last few months.

“It’s the biggest game of the year for us on Friday night. If the supporters don’t bring their A-game, if we don’t bring our A game, we could be out of the competition.

“We’ll see on Friday night.”

(v Sale): D Hurley, D Howlett, K Earls, B Murphy, K Lewis, L Mafi, I Dowling, P Warwick, R O’Gara, P Stringer,T O’Leary, J Flannery, D Fogarty, T Ryan, F Pucciariello, M Horan, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, P O’Connell, D Ryan, A Quinlan, J O’Sullivan, N Ronan, D Wallace, D Leamy.