Ospreys Calling In Round 2

Get the stats and pre-match thoughts of Head Coach Anthony Foley as Munster prepare for their first away trip of the season on Sunday, travelling to Liberty Stadium to face Ospreys in Round 2 of the Guinness PRO12 – KO 2.30pm.

The weekend sees Munster and the Welshmen renew their rivalries for the first time since last season’s PRO12 semi-final at Thomond Park in which a would-be match winning try for Ospreys was disallowed following consultation with the TMO – Munster winning out 21-18 and progressing to the PRO12 Final.

With Ospreys looking to avenge such a narrow defeat, Munster’s challenge this weekend is made all the more difficult by their host’s impressive home record in the league. Unbeaten in their last 14 league matches at Liberty Stadium, last March’s 26-12 drubbing of Munster in Swansea saw the Welsh outfit make it back-to-back wins over the province in the regular season.

Both sides will again compete without the services of their World Cup representatives. Despite an unfortunate injury to Welsh scrum-half Rhys Webb, Ospreys’ impressive representation of 12 World Cup players remains the same following the news that Eli Walker will now join Warren Gatland’s squad as cover for the also injured Leigh Halfpenny.

Suffering a heavy 28-6 loss away to Ulster in their season opener on Friday, Ospreys will look to bounce back strongly this weekend.

Despite the disappointment of the PRO12 Final, last May’s season finale in Belfast remains Munster’s sole league defeat in their last eight games. Rustiness and a lack of precision may have cost Anthony Foley’s men a bonus point in defeating Treviso 18-13 in Cork last Saturday, but Foley’s charges will take confidence from their physicality and the chances created.

The province’s most recent trip to Swansea became their ninth defeat in twelve games at the Liberty and Head Coach Foley knows his side will have their work cut out if they are to avoid a similar fate again.

“Liberty Stadium is a very hard place to play, but hopefully we can learn from our mistakes there last year and build on what we did against Treviso.

“We have to go there with a good mind-set and understand the challenge that is ahead of us. The players don’t need any more reminding of Round 17 last season – eight penalties to one down, behind on the scoreboard and a sin-binning, all in the first half. We made a rod to hit ourselves with. We need to control our discipline this time around and put in a performance.

“Every team finds it hard in Swansea, we’ll be no different, but we’ll go to give a good account of ourselves and try to make it four from thirteen.”

Ospreys v Munster, Guinness PRO12 Round 2, Sunday September 13^th at Liberty Stadium – KO 2.30pm.

This game will be televised on TG4.