Previews: Pre-season friendlies of recent years haven't been inclined to whet the appetite for a new campaign - what with altered timescales, multiple and often unidentifiable substitutions and perhaps a meaningless cricket score - but this evening's offerings look, comparatively speaking, like the real deal.
It's Connacht's good fortune that their seasonal opener marks the return of the world's most famous player for his first outing of 2004. Newcastle Falcons yesterday confirmed that Jonny Wilkinson would make his first appearance for them since December this evening.
The return of England's World Cup-winning icon and half a dozen other internationals to the Falcons' line-up, including Welsh World Cup captain Colin Charvis (signed from Tarbes), will ensure Connacht of their biggest August crowd and in turn give the friendly an edge it otherwise mightn't have had.
"To have a leading English club like this is a roll-over from the Harlequins game. We're really looking forward to it and I'm personally looking forward to seeing him play," said Connacht coach Michael Bradley.
"It's the right entry level. These two games (they play London Irish on Friday) will be good for us. They both throw the ball about and play a good brand of rugby. We've a few new combinations, we've changed a few things in our game plan and we've looked at our defence and changed a few things there as well, so it will be an interesting test for us."
The game is given added lustre by it being Eric Elwood's 150th for his province. The 35-year-old has scored 1,227 points for Connacht, and kicking off his 16th season with them he becomes the first Irish player to reach such a milestone.
"Playing against Newcastle and Jonny Wilkinson makes it very attractive, and of course I'm kind of chuffed to be the first player to reach 150 caps," he admitted.
Of his longevity and durability, he said: "I like what I do. I enjoy training and I've been very fortunate with injuries. As I got older we had more success in recent years and that probably helped me to keep going."
However, he confirmed that this will be his final campaign. "Myself and Tara had a chat about it and I felt this would the right time. Maybe enough is enough. Go out on my own terms."
Ideally Connacht would like to be in better nick against the Powergen Cup holders, but aside from the absence of Bernard Jackman due to the extended 10-week pre-season for Irish frontline players, Darren Yapp, Mark McHugh (due back in October), Dan McFarland, Andrew Farley, Ray Hogan and Chris Keane are all injured.
Hence Niall O'Brien and his Clontarf team-mate James Downey will form a new midfield partnership, while Elwood will be partnered at half-back by former Munster and Irish scrumhalf Tom Tierney.
With the Celtic League and the Zurich Premiership only a couple of weekends away, the desire for a proper match, as such, will be equally felt at Thomond Park, where a depleted Munster play hosts to a strong-looking London Irish side.
Aside from the 10 frontliners still on pre-season, Shaun Payne and John Kelly are still deemed to be in need of further training and Dave Pusey's long-term absence compounds the unavailability of fellow locks Paul O'Connell and Donncha O'Callaghan.
The prodigal Paul Burke and prop Mike Storey will don the Munster jerseys for the first time since signing in the close-season, as will ex-Neath centre James Storey from the bench.
London Irish have named their Irish internationals, Justin Bishop, Bob Casey and Kieron Dawson, but former Munster and Leinster outhalf Barry Everitt remained in London to be with his wife, Lisa, pending the birth of their first child, but, like Mike Catt, could play against Connacht on Friday.
Bective Rangers and Coolmine took honours in Sweden when they won the under-15 and under-17 titles, respectively, at the Trelleborg International Rugby Festival over the weekend.
Teams from all over Europe took part in the annual event with Bective beating LMT Latvia by 20-15 in their final, with Coolmine overcoming the same club in the under-17 final.
Munster v London Irish
Thomond Park, kick-off: 7.0 p.m.
Connacht v Newcastle Falcons Sportsground, kick-off: 6.30 p.m.
CONNACHT
M Mostyn; T Robinson, N O'Brien, J Downey, C McPhillips; E Elwood, T Tierney; A Clarke, H Bourke, P Bracken, P Myburgh, C Short, M Swift, J O'Sullivan, M Lacey. Replacements: T Buckley, S Knoop, M Carroll, P Neville, J Muldoon, C O'Loughlin, M Walls, P Warwick, D Slemen, J Meagher, J Fogarty.
NEWCASTLE FALCONS
J Shaw; T May, J Noon, M Wilkinson, M Stephenson; J Wilkinson, H Charlton; I Peel, M Thompson, M Ward, S Grimes, C Hamilton, M McCarthy, C Charvis, P Dowson. Replacements: J Isaacson, A Long, M Hurter, E Kalman, L Gross, G Parling, S Sititi, E Williamson, J Grindal, D Walder, M Tait, M Mayerhofler, O Phillips, L Dickson.
MUNSTER
C Cullen; M Lawlor, M Mullins, J Holland, A Horgan; P Burke, E Reddan; G McIlwham, J Flannery, M Storey, T Hogan, T Hayes, S Keogh, J Williams, D Leamy. Replacements (from): J Storey, R Henderson, M Prendergast, F Murphy, B Touhy, B Murphy, M McPhail, D Ryan, J O'Connor, E McGovern.
LONDON IRISH
M Horak; J Bishop, G Appleford, N Mordt, P Sackey; M Mapletoft, P Hodgson; N Hatley, A Flavin, R Hardwick, B Casey, M Kennedy, P Poulos, C Roche, K Dawson. Replacements: S Staniforth, R Laidlaw, K Barrett, D Paice, R Thorpe, M Haslett, P Murphy.
