{"id":206396,"date":"2025-12-23T06:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/206396\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T06:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:32:10","slug":"munster-welcome-key-men-back-in-bid-for-rare-double-against-leinster-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/206396\/","title":{"rendered":"Munster welcome key men back in bid for rare double against Leinster \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Munster<\/a> forwards coach Alex Codling believes his team\u2019s 31-14 win over Leinster<\/a> at Croke Park in October will have no bearing on Saturday\u2019s clash between the arch rivals at Thomond Park.<\/p>\n

Codling confirmed all of Munster\u2019s Irish internationals will be available as they bid to complete a league double over Leinster for the first time in 11 seasons.<\/p>\n

Captain Tadhg Beirne and scrumhalf Craig Casey sat out the 26-10 win away to Ospreys<\/a> in Bridgend on Saturday evening, but they are poised to return. The province also look set to be boosted by the availability of hooker Diarmuid Barron and centre Dan Kelly after injury.<\/p>\n

Doubts remains over experienced hooker Niall Scannell, who went off in that win at the Brewery Field 10 minutes from the break with a neck injury. He and Munster are waiting on a scan to determine the extent of the injury.<\/p>\n

Munster have not beaten Leinster at Thomond Park since Joey Carbery kicked 14 points in a 26-17 Christmas win in 2018.<\/p>\n

From the starting 15 that night, Beirne, Scannell, Mike Haley, John Ryan, Jean Kleyn and Fineen Wycherley remain on the Munster books.<\/p>\n

Their most recent win over Leinster<\/a> \u2013 when Brian Gleeson, Tom Farrell and Ethan Coughlan touched down in addition to a penalty try \u2013 has fans hoping for an overdue double against Leo Cullen\u2019s men at a sold out Thomond Park.<\/p>\n

But Codling and Munster have been playing down the hype ahead of one of the biggest derby games in the global rugby calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a great day, but ultimately it was a long time ago,\u201d said Codling about the Croke Park win. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to have a massive bearing on the game this weekend. I mean, they\u2019ve had five wins since and four of those have been bonus-point wins and they scored over 30 points.<\/p>\n

\"\"Could a multiple URC champion be on the way out?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve got massive respect for them as a team, both in terms of the quality they have and what they\u2019ve done. But for us, it\u2019s another game. There\u2019s no more or less points on offer, but obviously the outside noise and expectation . . . We also understand, for the fans and everyone else, it is a massive occasion and one we\u2019re all looking forward to. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s probably the personal element in this game more than most of the other ones. Ultimately, when you play these interpros you are just playing against people you know very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think, naturally, there\u2019s a bit more of an edge because you\u2019re playing against people that you\u2019ve either played with or against many times over the year. That in itself brings that extra bit of edge, but in terms of whether it\u2019s Ospreys away or Leinster in an interpro, ultimately the points on offer are the same. So for us, it\u2019s just another game.”<\/p>\n

Codling said Leinster won\u2019t lack incentive coming to Limerick, nor does he expect them to be influenced by the result a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey certainly won\u2019t have any fears coming down to us,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019ve won a lot of times at Thomond Park, so, as I say for us, it\u2019s just reflecting on the Ospreys game. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a short week this week with Christmas. It\u2019s important we reflect on some of the really good stuff and bits we need to focus on. The staff and the players will have a little break and then we\u2019re back in on St Stephen\u2019s Day, preparing for the game on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Munster forwards coach Alex Codling believes his team\u2019s 31-14 win over Leinster at Croke Park in October will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,11287,11897,112,14881],"class_list":["post-206396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-munster-rugby","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}