URC: Munster v Benetton, Musgrave Park, Friday, 8pm – Live on TG4 and Premier Sports 1
Ever the drama kings, Munster have taken their ambition of reaching the URC playoffs and next season’s Champions Cup down to the last game of the regular season.
Throw in Peter O’Mahony and Stephen Archer making their farewell appearances on Munster soil in their hometown, as well as the generational Conor Murray, and even by Munster standards this could hardly be pitched more dramatically.
[ Munster will face probably the best Benetton side that has ever set foot on an Irish ground ]
When there’s bonus points involved there are multiple possibilities, but essentially this comes down to a winner-takes-all shoot-out for a place in the playoffs and next season’s Champions Cup between the teams sitting seventh and eight in the table on 46 points.
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Benetton are ranked above Munster by dint of winning more matches, which is the first criteria for separating sides on the same points, to be followed by points difference. Therefore, in the event of a draw and either the same number of bonus points or none on the night, Benetton would finish above Munster.
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Otherwise, bonus points can be ignored, for if there’s a decisive result the winner will finish above the loser, who is likely to drop further as Cardiff sit ninth also on 46 points and Edinburgh are on 44 points in 10th.
Helpfully, Cardiff meet the reshuffled Stormers in Cape Town beforehand (kick-off 6pm Irish time) and the Edinburgh-Ulster result will also be known entering the final quarter in Cork as that game kicks off at 7.35pm in Hive Stadium.
In truth, these feel like sideshows, with this shoot-out in effect amounting to a Round of 16 tie, but with huge connotations if Munster are to retain their status as ever-presents in the Champions Cup over the last 30 years.
Munster and Benetton come into this season-defining game on the back of impressive bonus-point wins at home to Ulster (38-20) and the champions Glasgow (33-7) and both have named unchanged starting XV.
Munster also keep the same 6-2 bench configuration, whereas Benetton make two changes among their replacements by recalling experienced Azzurri prop Tiziano Pasquali and the Pumas outhalf Tomás Albornoz to replace Giosuè Zilocchi and Leonardo Marin.
While the former All Blacks and Munster centre Malakai Fekitoa, now of Tonga, retains the number 23 jersey, perhaps nothing demonstrates Benetton’s unprecedented strength-in-depth than the dead-eyed Albornoz having to be content with a place on the bench and the talented Marin, who nearly snatched victory for Italy over Ireland in Rome, isn’t even named among the replacements.
Save for the Italian A scrumhalf Nicolò Casilio, Benetton have an all-international bench which boasts a combined 258 Test caps. Last week it was striking how much energy and impact the likes of 40-year-old ex-Pumas captain Agustin Creevy, Niccolò Cannone and Sebastian Negri provided as the Italians tightened the screw on Glasgow.
Save for a draw at the Stadio Monigo in their most recent meeting last season, Munster lead the head-to-head 18-3 and are unbeaten in their last 15 meetings with Benetton. However, this did include a lucky 15-13 win in the 2018-19 quarter-finals against a less accomplished Benetton side that led 13-6 entering the final quarter before three JJ Hanrahan penalties in the final quarter.
The vast bulk of the Benetton squad have been together for a few years and they reached the playoffs last season, losing 30-23 in a thrilling quarter-final away to the Bulls. This season they came within one play of winning away to Castres (where Munster lost) and reaching the Champions Cup knock-out stages for the first time after beating Premiership leaders Bath and La Rochelle in the pool stages.
Benetton’s scrum and lineout are generally very solid, their defences has improved this season, their back three provide a sharp cutting edge and, of course, they have the superb, telepathic Nacho Brex and Tommaso Menoncello in midfield. They can cut any team open. And often do.
Munster, and their capacity home crowd, will need to be on it for this gamefrom the off. If there’s anything like the same tension in the air as seven nights ago in Thomond Park, and more pertinently a repeat of those recurring lineout malfunctions and defensive glitches, then given any encouragement, unlike a callow Ulster, this dangerous Benetton side has the depth and experience to stay in the fight until the end.
Any pack with the experience of Niall Scannell, the brilliant standard bearer Tadhg Beirne and O’Mahony, whose presence should be as inspirational as it was when scoring one try and assisting for two others last week, should be capable of problem solving as it did against Ulster.
If they play with the same freedom and if the in-form Craig Casey and Jack Crowley ensure the same tempo, they probably have the greater all-round firepower: for while these two have similar defensive records over this season’s URC campaign, Munster have scored 63 tries to Benetton’s 47.
A nervy start and with it a few hiccups along the way seems a likelier problem than Munster and their supporters being lulled into any false sense of security by history. The highest stakes game of their season should take care of that and see Munster pull through. But it could be dramatic.
MUNSTER: Thaakir Abrahams; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Diarmuid Kilgallen; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Michael Milne, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Peter O’Mahony, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Lee Barron, Josh Wycherley, John Ryan, Fineen Wycherley, Tom Ahern, Conor Murray, Seán O’Brien, Alex Kendellen.
BENETTON: Rhyno Smith; Ignacio Mendy, Tommaso Menoncello, Ignacio Brex, Paolo Odogwu; Jacob Umaga, Alessandro Garbisi; Thomas Gallo, Siua Maile, Simone Ferrari; Scott Scrafton, Federico Ruzza (capt); Riccardo Favretto, Manuel Zuliani, Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: Bautista Bernasconi, Mirco Spagnolo, Tiziano Pasquali, Niccolò Cannone, Sebastian Negri, Nicolò Casilio, Tomás Albornoz, Malakai Fekitoa.
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU).
