Munster will begin their season vs Glasgow Warriors on Saturday week. They will end there preparations on Friday where the A side as well as the first XV will get a run out. Leicester Tigers will face the first XV down in Cork. The A side will play earlier in the day so a good share of the squad that will be used in the opening weeks of the season will see game time in either game.
Jack Crowley continues his recovery from a lower leg injury that has seen him ruled out since last April. JJ Hanrahan, Charlie O Shea look to be the two 10s Munster will look to have on board for the opening weeks of the new campaign.
Tony Butler has been brought back in to train with Munster having been released over the summer. He is involved owing to a number of injuries in the out half slot. Will Harrison is nursing a knee injury that was aggravated in the early part of pre-season. He has been brought in on a 1 year deal from Australia.
Clayton Mc Millian will hope the bad luck Munster have had due to injuries over pre-season won’t be repeated as the season kicks off in earnest on Saturday week. This season will test Mc Millian yet again and after several high profile incidents marred Munster last season off field in particular while performances on field didn’t meet the usual standards of the past few years.
More upheaval this pre-season saw Mike Predergast and Alex Codling leave with Jared Payne and Jimmy Duffy coming to take up there new roles and they were involved from the beginning of pre-season which was a big help to alleviate any pressure and have a good head start before any players came into the building down at Munster’s High Performance Centre in the University Of Limerick.
The expectations from the Munster supporters will need to tapered given the Pool in the Champions Cup and the start to the URC. In saying that the players will have to hit the ground running as they face some tough opposition in the URC opening rounds before taking Racing 92 on in round 1 of the Champions Cup down in Cork in the middle of October. Munster will want to start off as strongly as the last campaign and will need to do so. This season won’t be easy and injuries to key players could hamper Munster but again it will be down to some of the young talent in the squad to lead from the front and take things by the scruff of the neck and begin the season on the front foot and see what happens from then on