Boring, boring Munster? They trundle along, winning week after week, and picking pretty much the same team. Whereupon, they make five changes and throw a couple of likely lads in for their Guinness Interprovincial Championship debuts against Connacht in Galway on Saturday.
A bit injury-prone last season and this, Jeremy Staunton is finally unleashed - at outhalf for Ronan O'Gara - and it comes almost as a surprise that the 20-year-old will be making his first interpro start. So too will former Irish under-21 hooker John Fogarty, as much a flanker this year with Constitution, who made his first Munster appearance as a replacement last Friday.
"Ronan (O'Gara) got a bang yesterday and he's been working very hard on aspects of his fitness over the past six weeks," explained Declan Kidney. "Part of our duty is to get our fellas right for the international team. We've to weigh this up with the fact that Jeremy deserves his outing. So it's a combination of all these things."
A similar rationale applies to Fogarty, on the basis that it's best to blood him now out of choice rather than out of obligation in a crunch European Cup. "We have to see how he starts. It's a big task but there's no doubt he has the talent," says Kidney who rejects the notion that Munster are experimenting or taking Connacht lightly.
"Not one ounce. If I was experimenting I would have picked the likes of Donnacha O'Callaghan, Tom Tierney and Killian Keane, all handy players. Ideally you'd like to be using these games to prepare for Europe, not to beat each other up to qualify for something over a year away. It's hugely important for us to win, and to qualify for Europe, which we could do on Saturday. You don't mess around with that."
Of Staunton's seven previous competitive appearances for Munster, his three starts were all in the European Cup and at full back, which seemed a probable career route for his free-running talents less than a year ago. However, his preference is for outhalf, where he finally made an appearance last Friday. Indeed, he kicked three out of three and set up Munster's fourth try, while ominously for Connacht, in his provincial debut last season in the corresponding match, Staunton crowned an eight-minute substitute's cameo as full back with two tries in a 53-10 win.
Forewarned may be forearmed, but as Connacht understand full well, you never know what the free-spirited 20-year-old is going to do next. Indeed, far from weakening Munster's hand, Connacht are entitled to ask, why us again?
Nor does Fogarty's call-up diminish the Munster front-row, all the more so as it is accompanied by Peter Clohessy's recall to the starting line-up. Anthony Horgan, an original selection last Friday, is also recalled while John O'Neill is given a run on the right wing. Kidney has yet to choose between Mike Mullins and John Kelly, who also took a knock in training, at outside centre. This may be partially swayed by whether O'Gara makes the bench, where there are three vacancies.
Connacht have gone for something a bit different to liven up their midfield attack in the form of their new recruit Shane Stephens. As the talented Stephens only linked up on Tuesday, it's something of a gamble by Steph Nel, albeit a bold one. The 24-year-old lock Rowen Frost, one-time Bay of Plenty teammate of Stephens' and now at DLSP, makes his debut for the province, while Rob Lee is called up at full back and Colm Rigney shifts to a reshuffled backrow after Ian Dillon took ill during the week.
Dillon's illness was not rugby-related and it gave Connacht quite a fright, but he is fine now and recovering well. However, his loss continues an unfortunate trend for Connacht as the spoiling flanker had been arguably their best player to date. Offsetting that is the acquisition of Old Crescent's new back-rower, the Irish qualified South African Gavin Shoeman, who is named on the bench. "Gavin is a good, hard player," admitted Kidney, who had Shoeman training with Munster for three weeks before becoming a westerner.
Though Leinster have deferred selection for tomorrow's re-match with Ulster until the day of the game, they will almost certainly be without Shane Horgan and Emmet Byrne. Ulster have named a squad of 24, but probably won't reveal their hand until tomorrow either, as a number of players have minor knocks and cold symptoms. However, midfield understudy Jan Cunningham fractured a finger in training on Tuesday and will be sidelined for up to eight weeks.
Team line-outs
Munster: D Crotty; J O'Neill, M Mullins or J Kelly, J Holland, A Horgan; J Staunton, P Stringer; P Clohessy, J Fogarty, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), M O'Driscoll, A Quinlan, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: M Horan, F Sheahan, D O'Callaghan, AN Other, T Tierney, AN Other, AN Other.
Connacht: R Lee; P Duignan, S Stephens, T Allnutt, N Carolan; E Elwood, B Shelbourne; D McFarland, M Uijs, J Screene, R Frost, D Browne, J Charlie, C Rigney, J O'Connor. Replacements: W Ruane, M Smyth, J Ferris, M Swift, G Schoeman, M Cahill, J McVeigh.
