Horan Late Withdrawal

Munster flew into Edinburgh this afternoon ahead of their opening RaboDirect PRO12 encounter (Saturday, Murrayfield 8pm) without veteran Marcus Horan who was withdrawn with a back injury.

Horan, who suffered the setback in training in Cork yesterday, is expected to be back in contention for a place in the squad for the visit of Bennetton Treviso next weekend.

His place on the bench for tomorrow's game goes to Dave Kilcoyne.

Munster: D Hurley; D Howlett capt, C Laulala, J Downey, L O’Dea; I Keatley, D Williams; W du Preez, D Varley, BJ Botha; D O’Callaghan, B Holland; P Butler, S Dougall, J Coughlan. Replacements: M Sherry, D Kilcoyne, S Archer, D Foley, B O’Mahony, P Stringer, S Deasy, I Dineen.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley has issued a clear statement of intent with a selection that sees nine players from the successful Scotland tour of Australasia return to competitive action.

Captain Greig Laidlaw; centre, Nick De Luca; and top try-scorer Tim Visser are named in the backline while Ross Ford, and back-row trio Ross Rennie, David Denton and Stuart McInally are all included up-front with props Allan Jacobsen and Geoff Cross named among the replacements.

And Bradley makes no bones about his expectations from tomorrow's match. “We want to make a statement of intent in the RaboDirect PRO12, as a team and as a club, and want to kick that off with a win at home and give our fans something to shout about.

“We have virtually all of our players available for selection and have completed a strong summer of pre-season training, with the time to perform when it matters now upon us."

Edinburgh Rugby. Greig Tonks; Lee Jones, Nick De Luca, Ben Atiga, Tim Visser; Greig Laidlaw capt, Richie Rees; John Yapp, Ross Ford, Willem Nel; Grant Gilchrist, Sean Cox; David Denton, Ross Rennie, Stuart McInally. Replacements: Andy Titterrell, Allan Jacobsen, Geoff Cross, Perry Parker, Dimitri Basilaia, Chris Leck, Gregor Hunter, John Houston