Otherwise, coach Tony McGahan keeps faith with the personnel, who opened with a Magners win, for Munster's first game on the road and the opportunity to start the process of improvement from last season.
"Our form away from home last season was poor, no question about that". McGahan readily accepts. "As this competition has evolved it's become harder and harder to win away from home. Last year, I think the best away form was that of Ospreys who won three, two of those coming at the back-end against ourselves and Ulster, Leinster won twice on the road. You look at sides who don't finish at the top, they're still very difficult to turn over in their own ground.
"One of our big things this year is addressing our form on the road. If you want to do really well in this competition you need to. To that end, you need a strong focus. You have to take into account that things aren't going to go your way. That's the reality of it but you need to deal with it and get on with. So this weekend's gameis about addressing that.
McGahan travels with a particularly strong bench that includes Ronan O'Gara Tomas O'Leary and Donncha O'Callaghan for the first time this season and this trio wll see action at some stage of the evening.
Munster: F Jones; D Howlett, J Murphy, S Tuitupou, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; W du Preez, D Varley, T Buckley; D Ryan, M O'Driscoll; A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy capt. Replacements: D Fogarty, M Horan, J hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Mahony, T O'Leary, R O'Gara, D Barnes.
63x46.png){kind=logo}