Munster have knack of thriving on fear factor

Wasps v Munster:Unlike in the World Cup, half the 24 teams in the Heineken European Cup teams can realistically consider themselves contenders to win the trophy next May. And it is a measure of Munster's brute of a draw that they have been pitted in a pool with four of that dozen.

By contrast three of the genuine contenders will need shooting if they don't emerge from their pools: Perpignan, Stade Français (at 11 to 4 viable favourites to finally get mitts on the trophy) and, as ever, Serge Blanco's Biarritz. Put in context, Llanelli are the 7 to 2 outsiders to win Pool Five and amid the prevailing post-World Cup gloom, it seems a particularly cruel luck of the draw for the Irish.

Witness Munster's starting point this evening; the 2006 champions sent to Coventry to face the reigning 2007 champions in a reprise of that remarkable 2004 semi-final. Within the overall story line of a momentous European Cup collision between two outstanding cup sides are a host of little vignettes, none more eye-catching than Eoin Reddan against the Irish scrumhalf he replaced during the World Cup, Peter Stringer.

This raises the prospect of the low-lying Eddie O'Sullivan perhaps being in attendance. Ironically, the former Ireland and newly appointed Wales coach Warren Gatland will be there to see his old club, having given Stringer his Irish debut seven and a half years ago and instigated Reddan's move to Wasps.

Stringer's sudden banishment to the stands midway through Ireland's World Cup campaign still doesn't stack up. But he's too much of a fighter not to have a really big game today, full of sharp passing and industry. This is a litmus test of his season, and he must be acutely aware of that.

More critical will be the battle up front. How the Munster scrum copes (and Phil Vickery's absence is a decided help) and the lineout, where Mick O'Driscoll's skills should go some way to make up for the absence of Paul O'Connell.

Otherwise, with Declan Kidney having recalled Marcus Horan, Rua Tipoki, Shaun Payne and, more surprisingly, Anthony Horgan ahead of the in-form Iain Dowling, Munster are at full strength, with 10 of their remaining World Cup players in the starting line-up and Frankie Sheahan on the bench.

By contrast, Wasps are also without Josh Lewsey and Joe Worsley, while Simon Shaw makes his return. This might not be the worse time to face them.

Collisions will be key, as they always are with Wasps, and nowhere more so than in the battle of the back rows. The puzzling omission of James Haskell, a dynamic match-winning backrow if ever there was one, from England's World Cup makes him a man on a mission. Ditto the old warhorse Lawrence Dallaglio after his recent controversy. And Tom Rees, despite his World Cup, is a quality openside.

Yet, as encouraging as O'Gara's return to form last week were the first shoots of Denis Leamy rediscovering himself. If David Wallace matches or better's Haskell's ball-carrying and Alan Quinlan revels in his battle of the dark arts with Dallaglio, Munster will be in business, all the more so if O'Gara starts pinging those touchfinders and landing those pressure penalties.

Viewed in the light of the limited preparation time together, the first five or 10 minutes could ultimately be decisive. Munster will need to build their way into this game, and they won't be best placed to do so if chasing shadows early on.

It's easy to forget Munster have been written off more often than Seabiscuit. Yet they keep on producing, and surprising people, in part because of that intangible quality they invariably bring to the European Cup: what a slightly perplexed Alan Gaffney, as much as anyone, referred to as the Munster X-factor.

With three home games to come, Munster are not actually under as much pressure to win this weekend as the other Irish provinces and defeat today need not necessarily be the end of the road. The prospect of 1pm and 1.30pm kick-offs in the apparently glorified building site that is Thomond Park without floodlights runs the real risk of diminishing the bearpit feel of those 5.30pm Saturday slots, but that's for another day.

As long as Munster stay in touch in this pool, remaining masters of their own destiny, anything is possible, as they have repeatedly shown.

Hence, they won't want to lose on the scale of previous opening-weekend defeats to Gloucester and Sale, for it was the former in 2002 that compelled Munster to produce their miraculous, four-try, 27-point win in the return fixture on the last weekend of the pool stages.

It's also disconcerting their air of invincibility in their Thomond Park citadel was removed by Leicester last January and they were then relatively well beaten by an inspired Llanelli in the quarter-finals.

And not only do they nurture their wounds well, fear can be a powerfully healthy spur, as was proven when they went into the Tigers' Welford Road lair at this point last year.

Nobody nurtures fear better.

LONDON WASPS: M van Gisbergen; P Sackey, F Waters, R Flutey, T Voyce; D Cipriani, E Reddan; T Payne, R Ibanez, N Adams; S Shaw, G Skivington; J Haskell, T Rees, L Dallaglio (capt). Replacements: J Ward, M Holford, R Birkett, J Hart, S Amor, R Hoadley, D Leo.

MUNSTER: S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, A Horgan; R O'Gara (capt), P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: F Sheahan, T Buckley, A Foley, J Paringati, T O'Leary, P Warwick, I Dowling.

Referee: Malcolm Changleng (Scotland).

Previous meetings: (1996-97) Munster 49 Wasps 22; (2003-04) Munster 27 Wasps 32.

This season's formguide: Wasps - L D L L W L D W. Munster - W W L L D W.

Betting (Paddy Power): 8/15 Wasps, 22/1 Draw, 11/8 Munster. Handicap odds (= Munster +4pts) 10/11 Wasps, 22/1 Draw, 10/11 Munster.

Forecast: Munster to win.