United Rugby Championship: Sharks v Munster, Kings Park, Saturday, 5.15pm Irish time (Live on TG4 & Premier Sports)
Keith Earls is set to become the 14th player to make 200 appearances for Munster if he comes off the bench against the Sharks on Saturday in Durban but once again there is no place in the squad for Joey Carbery.
Jack Crowley continues at outhalf with Ben Healy again getting the nod to cover him on the bench with Munster making just one change to the side which defeated the Stormers 26-24 in Cape Town last weekend.
That’s an enforced change with RG Snyman ruled out with a head injury. Fineen Wycherley replaces him, with academy lock Edwin Edogbo on the bench poised for his first action since November after recovering from injury.
Earls will become the third member of the current squad to hit the 200 mark after Stephen Archer (259) and Dave Kilcoyne (215), having made his debut against the Ospreys back in 2007.
He’s second only to Simon Zebo (71 tries) as Munster’s top try scorer with 64, while he has scored 35 for Ireland, where he sits on 98 caps.
Earls has scored for Munster against 20 different teams but has yet to register a score against a South African club side.
Munster, beaten much more comprehensively than the 50-35 scoreline suggested three weeks ago in the Champions Cup, return to Kings Park to take on a Sharks side who will be looking for the win which will see them avoid a trip to Dublin to take on Leinster in the URC quarter-finals in a couple of weeks.
The Sharks have also made just one change from the side which eventually saw off Benetton 43-33 in Kings Park last weekend, and that too is in the secondrow where Jeandre Labuschagne replaces Hyron Andrews.
They will also be anxious to give a big send-off to World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi, who is moving to Racing 92, and Springbok prop Thomas du Toit, who is heading to Bath after a decade with the Sharks which was only broken by a stint with Munster where he played half a dozen games.
SHARKS: B Chamberlain; W Kok, L Am, B Tapuai, M Mapimpi; C Bosch, G Williams; O Nche, B Mbonambi, T du Toit; J Labuschagne, G Grobler; S Kolisi (capt), V Tshituka, S Notshe.
Replacements: K van Vuurren, N Mchunu, C Sadie, R Hugo, P Buthelezi, C Wright, R Janse van Rensburg, A Fassi.
MUNSTER: M Haley; C Nash, A Frisch, M Fekitoa, S Daly; J Crowley, C Murray; J Loughman, D Barron, S Archer; J Kleyn, F Wycherley; P O’Mahony (capt), A Kendellen, G Coombes.
Replacements: S Buckley, J Wycherley, K Knox, E Edogbo, J O’Donoghue, C Casey, B Healy, K Earls.
Referee: M Adamson (Scotland).
