Zebre vs Munster, Fri 21st Feb, 7:35pm Irish time, Eir Sport

thomond2006

Zebre:
15. Junior Laloifi (8)
14. Paula Balekana (24)
13. Jamie Elliott (33)
12. Tommaso Boni* (Cap) (85)
11. Pierre Bruno (10)
10. Francois Brummer (24)

9. Joshua Renton (30)
8. Renato Giammarioli* (40)
7. Jimmy Tuivaiti (25)
6. Maxime Mbandà* (51)
5. Ian Nagle (11)
4. Mick Kearney (14)
3. Eduardo Bello (42)
2. Massimo Ceciliani* (24)
1. Daniele Rimepelli* (37)

A disposizione:

16. Matteo Luccardi* (0) (giocatore invitato tesserato col Rugby Calvisano)
17. Riccardo Burgnara (1) (permit player tesserato col Rugby Calvisano)
18. Matteo Nocera* (1) (permit player tesserato con le Fiamme Oro Rugby)
19. Leonard Krumov* (40)
20. George Biagi (118)
21. Nicolò Casilio* (3) (permit player tesserato col Rugby Calvisano)
22. Pescetto Paolo (0) (giocatore invitato tesserato col Rugby Calvisano)
23. Enrico Lucchin* (9)

Unavailable: Michelangelo Biondelli*, Paolo Buonfiglio*, Tommaso Castello, Gabriele Di Giulio*, Marco Manfredi, Lorenzo Masselli, Alexandru Tarus, David Sisi, Charlie Walker

Unavailable due to international duty: Luca Bigi, Giulio Bisegni, Mattia Bellini, Carlo Canna, Oliviero Fabiani, Danilo Fischetti*, Giovanni Licata*, Andrea Lovotti*, Guglielmo Palazzani, Marcello Violi*, Giosuè Zilocchi*

Munster:
Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Sammy Arnold, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly; JJ Hanrahan, Craig Casey;
James Cronin, Niall Scannell (c), John Ryan; Fineen Wycherley, Darren O’Shea; Arno Botha, Chris Cloete, Jack O’Sullivan.

Replacements: Kevin O’Byrne, Jeremy Loughman, Stephen Archer, Gavin Coombes, Tommy O’Donnell, Neil Cronin, Dan Goggin, Darren Sweetnam.

In what is shaping up to be a four way dance for three playoff spots in Conference B, this is a must win for Munster. Zebre have averaged 31 points conceded per game so a try bonus point will be target for the visitors.

There are six changes from last week with TOD and Sweetnam returning from injury on the bench.

The Zebre side are missing a large amount of players, necessitating a number of callups from the Super 10 clubs.

The game takes place in Stadio Giovanni Mari in Legnano, a suburb of Milan.

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Richie_Rich89

Nick McCarthy would probably have been better off going to Ulster. Seems a bit of a pointless signing from Munster's end when they've got Murray, Casey, Cronin and Stafford and they don't seem to rate him higher than Cronin. Were they just trying to ingratiate themselves with Nucifora, being seen to replace Mathewson with an IQ guy and buy in to his 'spread the talent' mantra?

slingerz

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

Nick McCarthy would probably have been better off going to Ulster. Seems a bit of a pointless signing from Munster's end when they've got Murray, Casey, Cronin and Stafford and they don't seem to rate him higher than Cronin. Were they just trying to ingratiate themselves with Nucifora, being seen to replace Mathewson with an IQ guy and buy in to his 'spread the talent' mantra?

Well seeing as it was Cronin/McCarthy last week and now it is Casey/Cronin i'd hazard a guess it will be McCarthy/Casey the following week against the Scarlets. If McCarthy cant pass Cronin or Casey then he's not really going anywhere and being in Ulster isnt going to do him any favours either. I would have him as the 2nd choice SH in Munster just ahead of Casey at the moment but Casey is fast gaining on that spot

yerrahbah

I would have started Archer and KO'B and had Knox and Barron on the bench

No Healy on the bench with Scannell covering OH

Delighted to see TO'D and Sweetnam fit again

Is Gavin Coombes a second row?

Richie_Rich89

slingerz wrote: »

Well seeing as it was Cronin/McCarthy last week and now it is Casey/Cronin i'd hazard a guess it will be McCarthy/Casey the following week against the Scarlets. If McCarthy cant pass Cronin or Casey then he's not really going anywhere and being in Ulster isnt going to do him any favours either. I would have him as the 2nd choice SH in Munster just ahead of Casey at the moment but Casey is fast gaining on that spot

They'll rotate and he'll get dribs and drabs of gametime, but it's rotation just to try to keep all three happy. There's no reason Casey and Cronin couldn't cover all this gametime between them, with Stafford waiting in the wings in case of injury.

Would McCarthy do better if it was Shanahan he was competing with? I suppose it's a matter of conjecture, but he was more highly rated at Leinster anyway.

thomond2006

It's a fairly conservative lineup, not withstanding some standby players for Ireland are probably obliged to play. At the same time Craig Casey is getting an opportunity in a fairly settled side.

thomond2006

Big game for Cloete tonight. He's likely to be playing with a dominant pack so there's no excuse for the ill-discipline that plagues his game. He's one year into a three year contract and needs to step up.

Panda Killa

Red card... that's a bit harsh

razorblunt

yellow for me.

thomond2006

Well no excuse to not get the maximum now.

Bridge93

That must be zebres 3rd red card of the season? Very poor

Treviso have had 3 too I think

razorblunt

Lovely finish. great chip from Casey too

thomond2006

Scrappy enough. Munster soaking up a lot of pressure.

yerrahbah

Poor performance so far

thomond2006

Zebre aren't helping themselves at the lineout.

Panda Killa

To be fair, Zebre are really up for this physically, but their end product is just not there.
Can see the second half being a bit of a cakewalk by Munster

ScrubsfanChris

Man advantage in the line and we're kicking the ball away? WTF

razorblunt

Will be interesting to see this game at 60 mins, Munster need to chip away now and then stretch in the last 20.

razorblunt

Ref is poor, Zebre has a steal he didn’t ping and Munster get it back, the Haley gets a whollop in the face, nothing given.

DDC1990

Referee is awful.

TMO gone for a pint it seems as well.

Edit: Munster are even worse. Awful stuff.

yerrahbah

Mistake after mistake

razorblunt

Haley is poor again. All the time ther and he still sent the ball off the side if his feet.

Buer

This is still a BP win. Zebre are going to be dead on their feet in the last 15 minutes.

thomond2006

Buer wrote: »

This is still a BP win. Zebre are going to be dead on their feet in the last 15 minutes.

Going on the kicks so far Munster will have a decent wind advantage in the second half. Crucially they kept Zebre scoreless despite all their opportunities in Munster's 22.

ScrubsfanChris

First time in the Zebre 22 in ages..... JJ decides to kick away possession

Kristopherus

Get in !!!

yerrahbah

That's better. Some great carries by Loughman in there

ScrubsfanChris

Bout bloody time

thomond2006

You'd expect Zebre to run out of gas here. Their mostly club side bench is going to tell.

Kristopherus

Bonus Point coming up.