Leinster v Munster: Five game-deciding battles

It’s *only* the RaboDirect PRO 12 and some of the focus will be on the start of the new Heineken Cup season next week, but come on! It’s Leinster v Munster tonight, so as usual, everything’s at stake. Here are where it could be won and lost.

By Shane Breslin

1. Rog v Sexton

The battle between Conor Murray and Isaac Boss behind the scrum is fascinating, not least because Murray has leapfrogged both Boss and Leinster replacement Eoin Reddan in the Irish reckoning over the past six months. But it’s the men in the No 10 jerseys who really set the pulse racing with this one.

Following his devastating performance in the Heineken Cup final in May, Jonny Sexton was the man in possession of the Ireland place, with O’Gara seemingly being forced to content himself with the role of supersub. However, there was no disguising the poor form of the Leinster man at the World Cup, when Declan Kidney finally lost patience and restored embattled old Rog to the side. Sexton has been a different player in Leinster blue in the past, but can he exorcise those World Cup demons this quickly? This one looks like to-ing and fro-ing for a while yet. Verdict: Who the hell knows?

2. The line-out

Another tricky one: Leinster’s freshness (Leo Cullen got minimal game-time in New Zealand and Devin Toner didn’t travel) v Munster’s experience (Paul O’Connell and Donnacha O’Callaghan have miles and miles and miles in them there legs at this stage). Hooker Richardt Strauss was a huge success with Leinster in his first season last year while Damien Varley is still some way short of the dynamism that Twitter favourite Jerry Flannery offers. O’Connell and O’Callaghan have the pedigree and Toner, for all his potential, still has a bit to prove. Advantage: Munster

3. The props

It’s mix and match time at the business end of the scrum: Munster’s two foreign props against Leinster’s Irish pair. Wian du Preez and BJ Botha have big boots to fill in John Hayes and Marcus Horan (about which more below). The return of Du Preez earlier this year was seen as a boost for Munster, while Botha was a high-profile recruit from Ulster during the close-season. For Leinster, the stock of Cian Healy and Mike Ross has never been higher. It remains to be seen just how fresh they might be after the World Cup, but Ireland’s scrum has rarely been stronger. Advantage: Leinster.

4. Midfield battle

Notwithstanding his bridling at suggestions that the time for retirement is ripe, Brian O’Driscoll is still a massive loss to the Leinster midfield. Fergus McFadden gets the nod to step up, and he will be looking at this game as the building block for the rest of his career – front up and make a big impact tonight, and he is in pole position to be BOD’s long-term replacement for province and country, but come out second best and he slides down one of those snakes towards the bottom of the board once again. He has the perfect partner in Gordon D’Arcy, who may not be anywhere near the player he was four or five years ago, but is still the right man to coax a performance out of a young, raw, talented and quick outside centre.

For Munster, the young Aussie Will Chambers is something of an unknown quantity – he arrived earlier this season and made his debut against Aironi a week ago. Lifeimi Mafi remains an abrasive centre but the feeling is that he has dipped a level or two from Munster’s Heineken Cup winning season in 2007/08. Advantage: Leinster (even without O’Driscoll...)

5. The squad depth

Sean Cronin and Eoin Reddan, two members of the Ireland squad in New Zealand, are named on the Leinster bench. Cronin, Heinke van der Merwe and Jamie Hagan are seriously solid back-up options for the inevitable second half front row changes, while Kevin McLaughlin, Rhys Ruddock and Eoin O’Malley are three young stars with full international honours who will be desperate to make this their breakthrough season.

Munster also have promising young guns in Peter O’Mahony, James Coughlan and Danny Barnes, but the days of John Hayes and Marcus Horan have long since started to wind down. The absentees are also key: Leinster may be better equipped to go into battle without Brian O'Driscoll than Munster without Flannery, David Wallace and Felix Jones. Advantage: Leinster.