So far this season, it has only been available in lurches and bursts. Following the 24-20 win over Ulster last time out<\/a>, head coach Leo Cullen acknowledged that his team, having dug themselves out of a hole for the second week in a row, have had to remodel themselves to fit what\u2019s happening on the pitch. <\/p>\n \u201cI suppose we\u2019re learning to win in a slightly different way . . . anyway, nine points down last week, 10 points down this week [and we came back to win], which is great,\u201d said Cullen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not the way you ideally want to play every week. So, listen, we\u2019ve made a lot of changes, some of that is forced again. We know we have to manage players at this stage of the season. So you\u2019re seeing the guys in the stands, there\u2019s that chopping and changing that we have to do. Then you\u2019re trying to build cohesion.\u201d<\/p>\n Munster<\/a>\u2019s lifeline of faith comes from their last visit to Dublin for a United Rugby Championship clash in October. They gave a full-throated performance at Croke Park that day<\/a> and it was rewarded with a 31-14 win. <\/p>\n Munster matched Leinster physically and delivered a statement of intent. It was as good a performance as head coach Clayton McMillan could have asked for and added to Munster\u2019s fine unbeaten start to the season. <\/p>\n No longer the bullied little brothers, McMillan will look towards more of that mindset in front of a sold-out stadium for Saturday\u2019s round-eight meeting. <\/p>\n The experienced coach, who was formerly a policeman back home in New Zealand, can expect a backlash in the evening kick-off.<\/p>\n Since that game at Croke Park, Munster have wavered. McMillan\u2019s influence, positive as it was at the start, buckled against the South African Stormers and again at the hands of English Champions Bath in a crushing 41-14 defeat at The Rec earlier this month.<\/p>\n Both Cullen and McMillan probably agree on one issue \u2013 and that is no team in the championship cannot be beaten.<\/p>\n \u201cThe margins between pretty much every team in the competition is pretty small and you only need to be marginally off in your game to open the door for quality teams to run over the top of you,\u201d said the Munster coach.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re well aware of Leinster\u2019s depth and the quality of players that they have, so those margins become even smaller . . . the game against quality teams is always one of small margins.\u201d<\/p>\n Leinster\u2019s squad is as strong as it can be for this time of the year, with a key addition in Caelan Doris back to lead as captain. His on-pitch leadership for Ireland and Leinster has been influential.<\/p>\n Andrew Porter is also scrumming down at loosehead prop for the first time since October following an arm injury. As ever, the pair are joined by a host of international players in Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, R\u00f3nan Kelleher and Josh van der Flier. It is, by any measure, an impressive pack.<\/p>\n Harry Byrne is again rotated in at 10 with Jamison Gibson Park, Rieko Ioane and Robbie Henshaw in the midfield. Ioane is in at 13. <\/p>\n Ciar\u00e1n Frawley, who has been linked to Connacht next season in a reconnect with former Leinster coach Stuart Lancaster, starts at fullback. <\/p>\n The nine-times Ireland capped utility player is also outhalf cover if any calamity befalls Byrne during the game.<\/p>\n Munster have made seven changes, with captain Tadhg Beirne, Thaakir Abrahams, Craig Casey, Michael Milne, Lee Barron, Edwin Edogbo and Tom Ahern all in the starting team.<\/p>\n Former Irish secondrow and World Cup winner Jean Kleyn is among a strong Munster bench as is John Ryan, who is on the verge of becoming the third player from the province to reach 250 caps. <\/p>\n Only Stephen Archer (304) and long-time Irish and Munster lock Donncha O\u2019Callaghan (268) have previously broken that barrier.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be better, clearly,\u201d said Cullen. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of everything there at the moment, but we\u2019re still a group that are trying to come together.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a couple of games [in which] we\u2019ve got ourselves in trouble with some of our own looseness \u2013 Munster in Croke Park is probably the one, more than anything. That\u2019s probably one of the games where we were most loose with the ball. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd we obviously saw the result that day against a very hungry, desperate team. So, if we\u2019re loose with the ball again against Munster, we know what\u2019s going to happen to us because we\u2019ve already seen it happen to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Forewarned is forearmed, with the 16th man of the Thomond Park crowd likely to get on board if Munster can push Leinster into a hole with a confrontational and aggressive posture from the beginning.<\/p>\n With centres Alex Nankivell and Abrahams, fullback Shane Daly and Calvin Nash out wide, Munster have edge and pace in attack, although Leinster have players that are more familiar with big-stage, high-pressure games.<\/p>\n That said, mindset and execution have been the occasional enemies of Leinster so far in the championship. They could again be the areas where this game is won and lost.<\/p>\n MUNSTER: S Daly; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell, T Abrahams; J Crowley, C Casey; M Milne, L Barron, M Ala\u2019alatoa, E Edogbo, T Ahern, T Beirne (C), J O\u2019Donoghue, G Coombes. Replacements: D Barron, J Loughman, J Ryan, J Kleyn, F Wycherley, P Patterson, D Kelly, J Hodnett.<\/p>\n LEINSTER: C Frawley; T O\u2019Brien, R Ioane, R Henshaw, J Lowe; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, T Clarkson, J McCarthy, J Ryan, M Deegan, J van der Flier, C Doris (Capt). Replacements: J McKee, P McCarthy, T Furlong, D Mangan, S Penny, F Gunne, C Tector, A Osborne.<\/p>\n Referee: Peter Martin (IRFU).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"URC: Munster v Leinster, Thomond Stadium, Saturday, 7.45pm \u2013 Live on Premier Sports There will be an element…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,11287,11897,43,40,38,41,39,14881],"class_list":["post-212520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-munster-rugby","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212520","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=212520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Munster’s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766785749_13_NMCPSDCHANGIRGM4OWLM6NNGZQ.jpg\")
Munster\u2019s Jack Crowley celebrates a late penalty during his team’s URC defeat of Leinster at Croke Park on October 18th. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1739272379918-c03b2529-1643-4e02-ab77-51ef2d1ea4b6.jpeg\"\/)
The role sports psychology has played in Leinster and Ireland\u2019s success<\/p>\n![\"Leinster's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/75F7V7HPXNCPZBFV24LPBXUIAU.jpg\")
Leinster’s Ciaran Frawley starts at fullback against Munster. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n![\"Munster's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Z53MHX2KEJCUBG2M56E3JA2ANY.jpg\")
Munster’s John Ryan arrives at The Rec ahead of the Champions Cup match against Bath on December 6th. Ryan is closing in on his 250th appearance for Munster. Photograph: Dan Clohessy\/Inpho <\/p>\n