Full-strength Munster side in SA for two crucial matches
International star Keith Earls is back and Munster have unsurprisingly selected a fullstrength squad for their twomatch tour of SA that starts with their first match against the DHL Stormers tomorrow.
The Irish province end their Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign with matches against the Stormers and the Cell C Sharks, and the stakes are high for all parties as they have plenty to gain and plenty to lose.
Munster finish off against the Sharks, who beat them 5035 at HollywoodBets Kings
Park in the Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 tie in their last game.
If they win both games, Munster, who are currently placed fifth on the log, still have a chance of finishing in the top four, meaning that they qualify for a home quarterfinal.
However, should they lose both games, they could slip to eighth or even drop out of the playoff bracket.
Certainly, qualification for next year’s Champions Cup is doubtful if they do not win at least one of their games in SA.
The Sharks are currently the eighth-placed team, seven points behind Munster, on 41 points against Munster’s 48.
Their other remaining game is against Benetton at HollywoodBets Kings Park today.
Should they beat Benetton and then repeat their recent Champions Cup victory in the return against Munster, they could lift to 51 points and claim the fifth place, which will give them an easier passage through the playoffs.
Conversely, defeat could see them still vulnerable to missing out on Europe next season.
So it is a matter of fighting for survival for both teams.
From their own survival perspective, Munster just need to win one of their remaining two games to ensure they are out of range of the Sharks, and that is why their game against the tournament champions tomorrow evening is so important.
It will mean the following week’s game against the Springbok-laden Sharks will be played with some of the pressure off them.
The Stormers also have a lot* to play for. Not only do they need to regain their confidence after the weekend’s disappointing loss to Exeter Chiefs in their first-ever Champions Cup quarterfinal at Sandy Park, but they also need to win to make sure of the secondplace finish that will enable them to have a chance of repeating last year’s feat of playing all their playoff fixtures at home.
The Stormers are at this point the only SA team sure of a place in the Finals Series of the competition and also qualification for next season’s
Champions Cup. The SA Shield champions for a second year, they are comfortably the bestperforming local team in the competition.
However, after losing away to Exeter, the Stormers would have been reminded of the importance of being at home for playoff games, and that does considerably up the ante for them on Saturday.
On the evidence of the Sandy Park game, Stormers coach John Dobson is going to have to find a way to re-energise his charges. —