Team News:Ulster will have captain Paddy Wallace and flanker Stephen Ferris back in their ranks for the Magners League trip to Thomond Park tomorrow as they look to stay top of the table with a repeat of last year's win at the Munster fortress. Munster, meanwhile, have made two changes in the pack.
Ian Whitten makes way for Wallace, as the centre is named alongside Darren Cave in an otherwise unchanged backline from that which took to the field in the 16-14 win over Leinster at Ravenhill last week.
Ferris is preferred to Tamaiti Horua on the blindside, while Ed O'Donoghue replaces the injured Dan Tuohy in the secondrow to partner Ryan Caldwell.
"You've always got to be wary of Munster,” coach Brian McLaughlin said this afternoon.
"When you think of what has happened to them in the past month, they are going to want to get back on track. They are playing at Thomond, where they're extremely strong, so we are under no illusions about what we're going to face down there.
"It will be a very confrontational full-strength Munster side, so it's going to be a very hard game. We just have to concern ourselves with going down there with the right attitude, playing with the confidence we have been and looking for a good performance.
"It's going to be a good check for us. It's going to be a good place to go, take them on and test ourselves.
"The season is relentless. Yes, after Munster there is a short break, but then we have Glasgow at home followed by two really tight back to back games against Stade Francais in the Heineken Cup. Coming out of that, we have the Magners inter-pro series over Christmas.
"So it's about us playing consistently at our best. That's what will determine our season," added McLaughlin.
Scrumhalf Isaac Boss continues his blossoming partnership with Ian Humphreys. Both were left out of the Ireland squad during the week and will no doubt be eager to prove a point.
In the Munster camp coach Tony McGahan has brought academy player Stephen Archer into the frontrow in place of the injured Darragh Hurley, while the experienced Alan Quinlan comes into the backrow ahead of Niall Ronan, who is named on the bench.
Another Academy player, David Kilcoyne, was promoted to the bench and illustrates the apparent problem and lack of resources at prop for Munster.
Julien Brugnaut will start in his favoured loosehead position having started the game against Edinburgh on the opposite side of the frontrow with Denis Fogarty to continue at hooker.
Munster team manager Shaun Payne is under no illusions that Munster need a big improvement if they are to maintain their unbeaten home record this season.
"We are acutely aware that our performances to date haven't been up to scratch and we'll be looking to do something about that Saturday." he said.
"There has been a fair bit of disruption recently but we're not using that as an excuse. I think there has been parts of our play that has been very good at times in recent games but we're lacking consistency and that's an area we're looking to improve.
"There's also a confidence factor when things aren't going the way you have planned so if we can get a little rhythm into our play, get the confidence levels up then I think we'll see a performance nearer to what we expect of ourselves," added Payne.
Ulster: C Schifcofske; T Nagusa, D Cave,P Wallace, A Trimble; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, N Brady, B Botha; E O'Donoghue, R Caldwell; S Ferris, W Faloon C Henry. Replacements: A Kyriacou, B Young, T Horua, R Diack, P Marshall, I Whitten, S Danielli.
Munster: P Warwick; I Dowling, L Mafi, J de Villiers, K Earls; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; J Brugnaut, D Fogarty, S Archer; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell (capt); A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: D Varley, D Kilcoyne, M O'Driscoll, N Ronan, P Stringer, D Hurley, F Jones.
