Coombes and Daly return as Munster ring the changes for Ulster clash
Munster Pic: Gavin 8 No Brady/inpho Coombes Ben
Gavin Coombes and Shane Daly are among the returnees to the Munster starting line-up for Friday night’s resumption of the URC campaign at derby rivals Ulster as both provinces are forced to stand down some of their international players.
Munster, 11th in the league standings after seven of the 18 rounds of the regular season, trail Ulster by one place and a single point ahead of this Belfast showdown and both are looking to rebound from Champions Cup pool defeats to French opponents last time out.
For the visitors, interim head coach Ian Costello has made six changes from the side which started the 16-14 Champions Cup pool defeat at Castres last Friday while Ulster head coach Richie Murphy has introduced four new faces who missed out on the 40-19 home defeat last Saturday to Bordeaux-Begles.
Ireland locks Tadhg Beirne and Iain Henderson both sit out the interprovincial meeting under IRFU player management guidelines, with Ulster flanker and November Test debutant Cormac Izuchukwu not featuring while Munster are without scrum-half Craig Casey, wing Thaakir Abrahams, loosehead prop Dian Bleuler, hooker Diarmuid Barron and flanker Peter O’Mahony due to injuries received in the loss at Stade Pierre Fabre.
Coombes is restored to the Munster back row at No.8 having missed out on selection at Castres due to squad rotation with Brian Gleeson dropping out of the matchday 23.
Jack O’Donoghue is promoted from last week’s bench to replace O’Mahony at blindside flanker, from where he will take over the captaincy from the absent Beirne.
The skipper’s place in the second row goes to Tom Ahern, a replacement last week, while John Ryan switches to loosehead to cover the loss of Bleuler, concussed last Friday.
The backline sees Paddy Patterson replace serious knee injury victim Casey at number nine while Daly is restored to the back three on the left wing following Abrahams’ shoulder dislocation.
Eoghan Clarke, Dave Kilcoyne and Oli Jager provide the front row back-up as Costello maintains a bench of six forwards and two backs with academy lock Evan O’Connell, Alex Kendellen and Brian Gleeson completing the pack cover and Ethan Coughlan and Rory Scannell named as backline replacements.
O’Mahony failed to recover from the calf contusion he sustained in Castres while Barron has not recovered from the shoulder injury of the same night.
For Ulster, John Cooney makes his return from a hamstring injury to start at scrum-half while academy fly-half Jack Murphy is in line for a senior debut from the bench.
Irish front-rowers Rob Herring at hooker and tighthead Tom O’Toole keep their places with Andrew Warwick the change at loosehead, while captain Alan O’Connor partners Kieran Treadwell in a Henderson-free second row.
The back row sees two changes, as flankers James McNabney and Marcus Rea are introduced on the blindside and openside respectively with David McCann retained at No.8.
Academy back Rory Telfer is named on the bench a week on from his senior debut against Bordeaux.
M Lowry; W Kok, J Postlethwaite, S McCloskey, Z Ward; A Morgan, J Cooney; A Warwick, R Herring, T O’Toole; A O’Connor, K Treadwell; J McNabney, M Rea, D McCann.
J Andrew, E O’Sullivan, S Wilson, H Sheridan, M Rea, D Shanahan, J Murphy, R Telfer.
M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell, S Daly; J Crowley, P Patterson; J Ryan, N Scannell, S Archer; T Ahern, F Wycherley; J O'Donoghue, J Hodnett, G Coombes.
E Clarke, D Kilcoyne, O Jager, E O’Connell, A Kendellen, E Coughlan, R Scannell, B Gleeson.
Ben Whitehouse (Wales)