Munster may be taken all the way to nail-biting finale on night of high emotion
Emotions will run high on Leeside tonight whatever happens at Virgin Media Park as Munster strive to save their season and their proud European record.
Munster interim boss Ian Costello has put his faith in an unchanged squad - the players who dealt well with the must-win scenario against Ulster last week get the opportunity to finish the job against Benetton.
Peter O'Mahony's presence in the back row will raise the temperature, as it did in his Thomond Park farewell this week. This time O'Mahony and Stephen Archer say their goodbyes on their home patch in Cork ahead of their retirements and the 8,800 sell-out crowd will react accordingly.
Throw in Conor Murray's final game in Cork before moving to pastures new next season and the milestones of Craig Casey's 100th and Jean Kleyn's 150 appearances and there's no shortage of touchstones for the Reds to gain inspiration from.
But this won't be easy. Munster go into the final weekend of regular fixtures in the eighth and final URC play-off berth. Nothing less than a victory will leave them anxiously looking at results elsewhere, both on the night and tomorrow.
Benetton, in seventh place but only by virtue of a better win record than their opponents (nine to Munster's eight), are also in jeopardy. The Italian club has also hit a rich vein of form and their take down of reigning champions Glasgow last week has Munster on red alert.
Scarlets, on 48 points in sixth place, are two points ahead of Munster, Benetton and ninth placed Cardiff. Edinburgh are on 44 points in 10th. It's all to play for but Munster know that a victory will be enough for a place in the quarter-finals - and next year's Champions Cup.
'Certainly, you're very much cognisant of the abilities these guys have," said Munster defence coach Denis Leamy of the visitors. "The thing that strikes me about Benetton is they have players with an awful lot of international experience. You think of their backline, Umaga, Brex, Menoncello, Odogwu - these guys are full of quality.
'So, it's trying to deny them a flow of possession and try to deny them that transition game that they flourish on as well. They're very good in broken field. They've a great offloading game and a strong kicking game and that has manifested itself in a lot of results for them.
'They've beaten Bath this season, they've beaten La Rochelle, they were really good last Saturday against Glasgow. They had a really strong performance and obviously Glasgow are the champions and they have a very good team.
'You see what they're capable of and it definitely puts you on high alert. We've spoken about that a lot but we've just got to back ourselves, back our game, understand the people that we have in the building and believe in that.'
The performance against Ulster, particularly in the second half, will give Munster a lot of encouragement as they seek the victory that will ensure their record of playing in every season of the Champions Cup remains intact into 2026.
"It's about building on that again in that little bit of a pressure zone that Cork, Musgrave Park is going to be," Leamy added. "It's about delivering and putting our best foot forward, we fully believe in our players and we've got players who have played at the very highest level and have won a URC only a couple of seasons before.
"So these boys have been in tough places and we back them all the way."
Munster: Abrahams, Nash, Farrell, Nankivell, Kilgallen, Crowley, Casey; Milne, N Scannell, Archer, Kleyn, Beirne (c), O'Mahony, Hodnett, Coombes. Replacements: Barron, J Wycherley, Ryan, F Wycherley, Ahern, Murray, O'Brien, Kendellen.
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