CHAMPIONS CUP BOOTROOM

CASTRES v MUNSTER

Stade Pierre Fabre, 5.30pm TEAM NEWS: Munster pair Joey Carbery and Conor Murray at half-back for the first time with Stephen Archer returning to the bench the only other change to the squad that beat Castres 30-5 last weekend. Castres’ key change is the reintroduction of Rory Kockott at scrum-half. LAST THREE MEETINGS DEC 2018 - Munster 30 Castres 5. JAN 2018 – Munster 48 Castres 3. OCT 2017 – Castres 17 Munster 17. VERDICT: Castres. WHY: Without Jean Kleyn and Chris Farrell, Munster may lack that extra bit of muscle they need to topple Castres.

CASTRES: S Spedding; M Laveau, T Combezou, F Vialelle, T Paris; B Urdapilleta, R Kockott; P Fa’anunu, K Firmin, M Clerc; T Lassalle, L Jacquet; Y Caballero, M Babillot (capt), M Vaipulu. Reps: M Rallier, A Tichit, W Hounkpatin, C Samson, K Gimeno, R Ebersohn, A Batille, L Radosavljevic.

MUNSTER: M Haley; A Conway, S Arnold, R Scannell, K Earls; J Carbery, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan; T Beirne, B Holland; P O’Mahony (capt), C Cloete, CJ Stander. Reps: K O’Byrne, J Loughman, S Archer, F Wycherley, A Botha, A Mathewson, JJ Hanrahan, J Taute.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England). TV: LIVE BT Sport3 from 5.15pm; Extended highlights Virgin Media One 10.05pm.

KEY STAT

Munster have lost just one of their last six away pool games in the Champions Cup.