Two Changes For Munster

Federico Pucciariello comes into the Munster starting XV for Sunday’s Heineken Cup clash with Llanelli Scarlets while Niall Ronan is named on the bench.

Pucciarello takes over at loose-head prop in place of Marcus Horan who is named on the bench to the exclusion of Tony Buckley and Ronan takes the place of James Coughlan.

Ronan had been named on the bench for the game against Leinster but was forced to withdraw with a hamstring twinge.

Meanwhile Alix Popham and Stephen Jones ahave been named in the Scarlets side  with Popham really looking forward to the trip to Limerick. “It will be great to play there,” he said, ” and we just have to get in their faces, stop them playing and take our game to them.

“It will be a great experience for the boys who haven’t played at Thomond Park before and it should excite them. We all want to go out there and produce a winning performance.

He added, “Training has gone well and we have worked on the areas that didn’t go so well in the last game. So I’m sure we will produce the goods on Sunday.  know we are out of this cup. but playing in Munster will help us in other games this season and bring us together as a group.”

Munster: S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O’Gara capt, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll;  D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley.  Replacements: F Sheahan, M Horan, D Ryan, N Ronan, G Hurley, P Warwick, K Lewis.

LLanelli Scarlets:  M Stoddart; M Jones, R King, J Davies, N Brew; S Jones, D Peel; I Thomas, J Hayter, B Broster, V Cooper, A Eustace, S Easterby (capt), A Popham, J Bater. Replacements: D George, D Manu, S MacLeod, N Thomas, G Thomas, G Cattle, C Thomas.