U21’s Face Leinster for the Title

The Munster Under 21 side will be in action tomorrow (Friday) evening when they play their final game in this year’s interprovincial championship.

The Munster Under 21 side will be in action tomorrow (Friday) evening when they play their final game in this year’s interprovincial championship.

They take on Leinster in Thomond Park (6pm) with both sides capable of winning the championship although all the cards are stacked in Munster’s favour.

As things stand, the Brian Hyland coached side are five points clear of second placed Leinster and Munster also hold a 42+ points advantage. So Leinster face a task similar to what faced the Munster senior side in the Heineken Cup last year when Gloucester visited Thomond Park.

Munster team manager Niall O’Shea will be reminding his charges of that turnaround, ” Anything can happen in this game, we saw that last year in that famous game. You can never take things for granted. We played Leinster earlier this year in Donnybrook and although we won they gave us by far our toughest game. Now since then they look to have improved and last weekend ran in eight tries against Ulster so they have the firepower to turn that points difference around if we allow them.”

Munster are the defending champions who won the title last year under coach Pat Cross with just one loss to Connacht in the opening game. This time around Hyland is in charge with former international Phillip Danagher as his assistant and O’Shea continuing on as manager. The trio make no secret of their desire to retain the title with a 100% record and the last game affords them that opportunity in a season that saw the championship being played on a home and away basis for the first time.

Munster U21 Side to Face Leinster:

Richard Lane (UCC); Andrew Finn (Dolphin), Brian Hastings (Dublin Uni), Breffine O’Donnell (UL Bohemians),Paul Hurley (UCC); Barry Keeshan (UCC), Tomas O’Leary (Constitution); Fergus Gately (UCC) Robert Quinn (UCC), Emmet McLoughlin (Shannon); Shane O’Connor (Constitution); Ryan Hartigan (UL Bohemians); Mark Melbourne (Garryowen), Anthony Kavanagh (Garryowen), Brendan O’Connor (Constitution).

Replacements: (from) Donnacha Ryan (UCC), Rory Brosnan (Garyowen), Dan Leek (Clonakilty), Ger Collins (Bruff), Michael Carroll (Bruff), Killian Barry (UCC), Brian Carroll (Bruff), Michael Hastings (UCD) Cathal Garvey (UL Bohemians).

Leinster:

15 – Ross Mc Carron (U.C.D.) 14 – David Foran (D.L.S.P.) 13 – Ken Copeland (Blackrock College) 12 – Killian Coleman (Terenure College) 11 – Marc Hewitt (Clontarf) 10 – Conor Sharpe (U.C.D.) 9 – Simon Gibney (St. Mary s College) 1 – Johnny Wickham (Clontarf) 2 – Ollie Mc Cormack (St. Mary s College) 3 – Keith Doyle (U.C.D.) 4 – David Gannon (Blackrock College) 5 – Alex Dunlop (Terenure College) 6 – Kevin Mc Laughlin (U.C.D.) 7 – David O Brien (Old Belvedere, Captain) 8 – Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University).

Replacements: (from) Jamie Musgrave (Dublin University) Cillian O Byrne (St. Mary s College) Owen Cullen (Blackrock College) Arthur Houlihan (U.C.D.) David Upton (Lansdowne) Cillian Willis (U.C.D.) Greg Stafford (Lansdowne) Simon Morrissey (U.C.D.) Philip de Barra (D.L.S.P.) Stephen Grissing (U.C.D.).