Respect for Ospreys influences Munster selection

The decision to include most of their biggest-name players in a 25-man preliminary squad comes despite the fact that many were heavily involved for Ireland during the November Tests.

Ireland faced a trio of grueling encounters against Australia, Fiji and South Africa last month, with many observers suggesting that a large number of Munster's international regulars would be given time off to recover from their exploits.

But that has not proved to be the case. Instead, a determination to retain the Magners League crown they won last May has ensured team manager Shaun Payne and head coach Tony McGahan have named an impressive-looking squad to travel across the Irish Sea.

"I suppose the selection for this week is a balancing act between what is best for the players and what is best for the team," Payne told the Irish Times.

"Another consideration is that we do not want to take away from this weekend and what challenge the Ospreys represent in the Magners League.

"This is very important for us as well. Winning at home is one thing but we have got to also win a lot of our away games too and Ospreys is one of the sides in the competition that we really respect.

"Obviously some of their senior players are missing and the scrum-half problem is well documented but I think that at the moment they have one of the best squads in Europe."

Skipper Paul O'Connell is among those set to feature ion Swansea, as are first-choice Ireland internationals John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan, David Wallace, Tomas O'Leary and Keith Earls.

Ronan O'Gara is also likely to start against Ospreys with a point to prove having been overlooked in favour of Leinster's Jonathan Sexton for Ireland's victory over the Springboks.

Hooker Jerry Flannery is given time off to rest having not long returned from an elbow injury.

"There are still one or two (international) players we didn't pick for this weekend and with just one game before the double header against Perpignan in the Heineken Cup there is a bit of a balancing act to be done," added Payne.

"In a sense it is out of our control but the way we would see it is we want to try and have the correct preparation going into very important back-to-back matches against a strong French side.

"Jerry (Flannery) is fine. We felt he just needed a rest and so he has been left out of the squad.

"Pauli (O'Connell) started in all of the matches (against Australia, Fiji and South Africa) but Donncha (O'Callaghan) didn't. Pauli's rest will come when we get these games completed. That is certain."

Munster preliminary squad

D Fogarty, D Varley, W du Preez, T Buckley, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, D Ryan, P O'Connell, M O'Driscoll, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace, J Coughlan, N Williams, T O'Leary, P Stringer, R O'Gara, P Warwick, L Mafi, J de Villiers, D Howlett, I Dowling, K Earls, D Hurley, F Jones