Preview: Munster v Treviso
October 16 2009
Munster have made just one change to the side that lost at Franklin's Gardens for their clash with Treviso.
In for injured hooker Jerry Flannery comes Denis Fogarty, who has ten Heineken Cup caps to his credit but this will be his first start in Europe
Elsewhere, boss Tony McGahan has named an unchanged line-up for Saturday, admitting it is a blow to lose his first-choice hooker.
"Of course it's disappointing, particularly so for the player himself but Denis has been around this squad a long time and fits in well," he said.
"He's worked extremely hard over the last 18 months of his rugby career to get an opportunity to start a Heineken Cup at home and I know he's thrilled and certainly looking forward to it."
Meanwhile, the Italians must surely be flying high following last weekend's shock 9-8 victory against Perpignan and make just one change with Brendan Williams coming in for Emiliano Mulieri on the wing.
It will be interesting to see if Treviso can find a way to back up their Round One win with a good performance at Thomond Park. But with Munster struggling after losing matches at Leinster and Saints, who knows what might happen in Limerick?
The teams:
Munster: 15 Paul Warwick, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Lifeimi Mafi, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Denis Leamy, 7 David Wallace, 6 Alan Quinlan, 5 Paul O'Connell (capt), 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Denis Fogarty, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Julien Brugnaut, 18 Darragh Hurley, 19 Mick O'Driscoll, 20 Niall Ronan, 21 Nick Williams, 22 Peter Stringer, 23 Ian Dowling.
Treviso: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Brendan Williams, 13 Alberto Sgarbi, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Andrew Vilk, 10 Marius Goosen, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Dion Kingi, 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Benjamin Vermaak, 5 Cornelius van Zyl, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 3 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Michele Rizzo.
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Augusto Allori, 18 Pedro di Santo, 19 Enrico Pavanello, 20 Robert Barbieri, 21 Marco Filippucci, 22 Tobias Botes, 23 Fraser Waters.
Date: Saturday, October 17
Kick-off: 13:35 BST
Venue: Thomond Park
Referee: Jérôme Garces (France)
Assistant referees: Patrick Pechambert (France), Jérôme Lamirand (France)
Television match official: Daniel Gillet (France)
Assessor: Paul Bridgman (England)