Five Changes & Botha On The Bench

Tony McGahan makes five changes to his starting XV and includes BJ Botha on the bench for Saturday’s RaboDirect PRO12 joust with Scarlets at Musgrave Park (7.45pm).

Two of those changes are forced with the call up for Damien Varley to the RWC squad – Varley flies out this (Thursday) evening – while Danny Barnes has a minor hand injury that forces him to miss this one though he is expected to feature against Cardiff Blues.

Mike Sherry comes into the starting XV as does Marcus Horan this time around with the only other change in the pack being Dave Foley (for Billy Holland) for his first competitive start of the season.

In the backs, Tom Gleeson, a 72nd minute replacement for Simon Zebo in Glasgow, comes in for Barnes while Zebo slips to the bench to make way for Denis Hurley, the man he replaced against Dragons in the League opener when Hurley picked up a slight hamstring injury.

Munster: J Murphy; D Howlett, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley; I Keatley, P Stringer; M Horan, M Sherry, J Hayes; D Foley, M O'Driscoll; P O'Mahony capt, N Ronan, J Coughlan. Replacements: D Fogarty, W du Preez, BJ Botha, B Holland, T O'Donnell, D Williams, S Deasy, S Zebo.