This weekend’s tie will be Munster’s first competitive game for five weeks as the league went into hibernation during the autumn internationals.
Magners League holders Munster currently lie in fifth place in the League table, one spot outside a semi-final play off place.
However, the ultra tight nature of the competition is highlighted by the fact that the four sides placed between second and fifth all have 19 points and are only separated by mere points’ difference.
Munster have won their last four games against the Ospreys in all competitions, including a 25-21 victory on their most recent visit to the Liberty Stadium in January of this year.
Munster’s 24-10 Halloween win over Ulster, in their most recent outing in the competition, ended a two-game losing run for the Magners League champions.
Munster have lost five of their last six away games, but boast an impressive record against Welsh opposition, winning 13 of their last 14 encounters against them.
Saturday’s opponents, the Ospreys, are currently seventh in the Magners League table, two points beneath Munster.
This weekend’s clash is the first of three major fixtures Munster face prior to Christmas.
Tony McGahan’s men will host French champions USA Perpignan in a key Heineken Cup pool match at Thomond Park on Friday, December 11 (8pm). Munster travel to the Stade Aime Giral for the return game nine days later on Sunday, December 20.
The Munster team spent two days in a training camp in Ballykisteen, Co Tipperary this week as part of their preparations for this weekend’s Round 8 Magners League tie.
Munster coach Tony McGahan faces some big selection decisions ahead of Saturday night’s clash with the Ospreys.
The Munster supremo will have to decide about how many ‘front line’ players he should give game time to ahead of the crucial Heineken Cup pool games against USA Perpignan.
the Munster players were introduced to newest arrival in the squad, Springboks’ prop Wian du Preez this week. Du Preez has joined the Irish province on a three-month contract until the end of the pool stages of the Heineken Cup in January.
The South African comes in to help shore up the loose head position. Encouragingly the news on one of the players he is covering for, Marcus Horan, is positive in that he has resumed light training after undergoing a successful medical procedure.
The Ospreys must plan without exciting international winger Shane Williams for this weekend’s game with confirmation that he will be ruled out for 4-6 weeks with a torn hamstring.
Williams, the Ospreys all-time leading try scorer, limped out of Wales’s defeat to Australia at the weekend after pulling up in the opening stages,
With the region’s three named Heineken Cup nines all ruled out with injury, the Ospreys completed the signing of South African scrum-half Ricky Januarie last week on a short term loan, registering him as their one additional player allowed under Heineken Cup tournament rules.
Welsh international, Mike Phillips is currently recovering from a serious ankle injury, while Jamie Nutbrown has damaged posterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament damage.
Colm Kinsella
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