MICK O'DRISCOLL will captain Munster in their seasonal opener against the USA Eagles in Hartford tomorrow (3pm local time, 8pm Irish) in a team with only two of the starting XV from their last outing, when beating Toulouse in May to lift the Heineken European Cup for the second time in three years.
Fullback Denis Hurley and centre Lifeimi Mafi are the two in question, though besides O'Driscoll, four other replacements that day - Tony Buckley, Donncha Ryan, Paul Warwick and Keith Earls - start, while Rua Tipoki, Ian Dowling and Tomás O'Leary are likely to play some part. Mike Prendergast starts following his summer return from Gloucester.
Ronan O'Gara, Paul O'Connell, Marcus Horan, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Doug Howlett, Donncha O'Callaghan and Alan Quinlan miss this match as they continue pre-season training. David Wallace remained in Ireland with his wife expecting their first child. All are likely to play against London Irish next Friday in Musgrave Park.
"They had to have a certain amount of pre-season so there wasn't really a selection issue at all," explained head coach Tony McGahan from their base in Boston yesterday morning.
With temperatures in the high 80s expected for the 2pm kick-off, McGahan accepts "the transition will be difficult" and therefore intends using all 10 replacements as rolling subs, as will the Eagles.
The Queensland Reds' three-match tour of Ireland (they play Connacht in Galway on Tuesday and Leinster in Donnybrook tomorrow week) kicks off in Ravenhill tonight (kick-off 7.30), where Matt Williams will welcome back his Ireland contingent of Paddy Wallace, Isaac Boss, Bryan Young and Rory Best, while also giving seasonal bows to Simon Danielli and young openside David Pollock.
There's also a senior debut for Ian Humphreys, who after two years with Leicester Tigers will seek to put down a marker in the three-way tussle with Wallace and Niall O'Connor to inherit the Ulster number 10 jersey from his retired brother David.
Michael Bradley has made 11 changes and two positional switches to his side ahead of their third pre-season friendly, against London Welsh at the Sportsground today (kick-off 6.30pm).
Troy Nathan is named at fullback for the first time, and there is a new halfback pairing of Kieran Campbell and Andy Dunne.
Aidan Wynne partners Mel Deane in the centre, Keith Matthews moving to the left wing and Fionn Carr taking his place on the right.
John Lyne, Conor Muldoon and Ronan Loughney form a new front row while Andrew Browne comes into the second row for his second start of the season.
CONNACHT (v London Welsh, the Sportsground, 6.30pm): T Nathan; F Carr, M Deane, A Wynne, K Matthews; A Dunne, K Campbell; J Lyne, C Muldoon, R Loughney; M Swift, A Browne; M McCarthy, R Ofisa, J Muldoon (capt).
MUNSTER (v USA Eagles, Connecticut, tomorrow, 8pm Irish): D Hurley; B Carney, K Earls, L Mafi, A Horgan; P Warwick, M Prendergast; F Pucciariello, D Fogarty, T Buckley; M O'Driscoll (capt), D Ryan; B Holland, N Ronan, J O'Sullivan.
LEINSTER Under-20s (v English Counties, Donnybrook, Saturday, 1pm): I Madigan; M Keating, G Foley, S Gahan, R Johnson; I McKinley, M Healy; J McGrath, T Sexton, N Lovic; S Grennell, M Flanagan; P Synnott, E Cremen, S Mahony (capt).
