All You Need To Know | Edinburgh v Munster

27th March 2019 By The Editor

Scrum action from Munster's Champions Cup clash against Castres Olympique in December.

Munster travel to Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon for a record 18^th Champions Cup quarter-final (12.45pm – live on Channel 4/Virgin Media/BT Sport/beIN Sports).

See this week’s best training photos here.

Read our latest squad update here.

Read about Munster’s path to the quarter-finals here.

Edinburgh boast a mean home record and have won 17 of their last 19 home games in Europe and 11 of 12 at Murrayfield in all competitions this season.

Head Coach Richard Cockerill has rejuvenated the Scottish side since taking the reins 20 months ago and is set to have his international stars back for Saturday’s clash.

Blair Kinghorn is the only Scotland international not available this weekend after the full-back picked up an ankle injury during the Six Nations.

Edinburgh were 28-11 winners over Leinster last weekend in a dominant performance with John Barclay and Matt Scott returning from injury.

Bill Mata has been their standout performer in Europe so far this season and has made the most carries in the competition (115) and he also made more metres (394) than any other forward.

Munster’s Joey Carbery was the top points-scorer in the pool stage with 68 thanks to three tries, 10 conversions and 11 penalties.

Team-mate Tadhg Beirne won the most turnovers (13) in the pool stage, a category he also topped while with Scarlets last season.

Only Newcastle’s Gary Graham (99) made more tackles than Munster’s CJ Stander (94) in the pool stage.

Team Line-Ups

Edinburgh: Darcy Graham; Damien Hoyland, James Johnstone, Chris Dean, Duhan Van Der Merwe; Jaco van der Walt, Henry Pyrgos; Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally (C), WP Nel; Ben Toolis, Grant Gilchrist; John Barclay, Hamish Watson, Viliame Mata.

Replacements: Ross Ford, Allan Dell, Simon Berghan, Magnus Bradbury, Jamie Ritchie, Charlie Shiel, Simon Hickey, Mark Bennett.

Munster: Mike Haley; Andrew Conway, Chris Farrell, Rory Scannell, Keith Earls; Joey Carbery, Conor Murray; Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, John Ryan; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony (C), Jack O’Donoghue, CJ Stander.

Replacements: Rhys Marshall, Jeremy Loughman, Stephen Archer, Billy Holland, Arno Botha, Alby Mathewson, Tyler Bleyendaal, Dan Goggin.

Video | Munster’s Road To The Champions Cup Quarter-Final – Read more here

A Word From The Head Coach

Ahead of the game, Munster Head Coach Johann van Graan said: “Our support is fantastic and just listening already to stories about people travelling I think that’s what makes Munster in Europe very special. It will be a huge amount of supporters on Saturday afternoon in Edinburgh and we as a group are very aware of it, very thankful for the support that we do get home and away.

“We’ve got big dreams, but to keep those dreams alive we have got to perform on Saturday afternoon against quality opposition playing really good rugby on their home turf.

“They’re very physical, I think their forward pack are very good scrummagers. You just have to look at what they did last Friday night [against Leinster] in terms of their scrum and their maul.

“Their pick-and-go game in the ’22, they’re pretty relentless with that and they do the simple things very well. They are a very well-coached side, you just have to look at the amount of internationals that became internationals over the past two seasons from Edinburgh to realise what a good side they are.”