Leinster will be hoping to complete five in a row over Munster for the first time since the 1930s when the teams face each other in the Magners League at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow.
The blues have won their last four matches against their arch rivals, but they’ve had a bad start to this season, losing three of the opening four league matches, and Brian O’Driscoll says the players have a “point to prove”.
Coach Joe Schmidt has chosen Isaac Boss ahead of Eoin Reddan at scrum-half, while Gordon D'Arcy continues in centre with Brian O'Driscoll. A decision on Jonathan Sexton's fitness will be made closer to kick off time.
Munster on the other hand will be feeling confident as they go into the match the only team remaining in the competition with a 100 per cent winning record.
Captain Denis Leamy said although the team will look back on previous encounters, this year’s form is what counts. “They'll get no points for what they did last year. The points that are on offer are for this one."
Prop Wian du Preez will start ahead of Marcus Horan in the front row, while the return of Alan Quinlan means David Wallace drops to the bench. The backline that played against Glasgow Warriors last week stays in place.
The game kicks off at 7.30pm at the Aviva Stadium, and a crowd of around 50,000 is expected.
Ulster takes on the Glasgow Warriors in Ravenhill at 7.05pm tonight. Ulster remain unbeaten in this year’s competition and have not lost a match in the league since they visited tonight’s opponents in April last season.
The Glasgow men have lost their last three Magners league fixtures, but they have an impressive record at Ravenhill and did the double over Ulster last year.
Elsewhere, the Dublin Theatre Festival, now in its 53rd year, opened last night and runs until October 17th.
This year three directors mark a Polish influence to the festival with Krystian Lupa's portrait of Andy Warhol in Factory 2, Grzegorz Jarzyna's T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. and Jan Klata's The Danton Case.
Pan Pan's The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane sees actors audition for the role of Hamlet with audience members deciding who gets the part.
Rough Magic returns to the festival with Phaedra by Hilary Fannin at the Project Arts Centre and the Gate is also staging four works by three connected writers in Beckett Pinter Mamet.
John Gabriel Borkman at the Abbey has the star power of Alan Rickman in the latest version of the Henrik Ibsen play.
Offset 2010 opens at the Grand Canal Theatre today and runs to Sunday. The event promises to bring some of the world’s top creative talent to Dublin to talk about their work, ideas and inspirations.
Highlights include the original Mad Man George Lois, Wired magazine and Condé Nast's digital publishing guru Scott Dadich, and graphic designer Mark Farrow.
Europe’s oldest international horse fair takes place in Ballinasloe over the weekend. Along with the normal equestrian events, activities also include a tug o’ war, queen of the fair and a county fair day.
The fourth annual Dingle Food and Wine Festival also takes place this weekend with cookery demonstrations, food market, wine tastings, workshops and a foraging walk.
Carrick-on-Shannon is hosting a Kurdish film festival from today until Sunday.
On the weather front, tonight will be mild and misty. Tomorrow will be a bright and breezy day with sunny spells and showers, and top temperatures will range from 12 to 16 degrees. Sunday will be most dry with some scattered showers.
