Heineken Cup - Munster v Ospreys (Sunday 12th April)
Published: 08/04/2009
Munster v Ospreys
Current Form
- Munster and Ospreys are simply put the best Ireland and Wales respectively have to offer. They are first and third respectively in the Magners League, and their players contributed significantly to this year’s 6 Nations.
- Munster have only lost one of their last 6 games, and last week convincingly beat second place Leinster 22-5.
- Ospreys have lost 2 of their last 6 games and edged out Ulster 16-13 last week thanks to a Filo Tiatia try in the last 10 minutes.
History
- Twice runners up, twice champions and current holders Munster will go into this game looking to further the recent Irish dominance over the Welsh.
- These two teams have only met twice in the Heineken Cup, when they contested pool 4 of the 2004/05 campaign. Munster won home and away but were knocked out in the quarter finals.
Trends and Trivia
- Munster truly are the giants of Heineken Cup rugby, with the top 4 all time player appearances coming from Munster – John Hayes, Anthony Foley, Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer. All but Anthony Foley are still playing, and it is this wealth of experience which makes them such formidable opponents in knock-out rugby. This season Ronan O’Gara reached 1000 points in Heineken Cup rugby, and is 250 points ahead of second placed Stephen Jones.
- In terms of attacking, Munster have just edged Ospreys statistically this year. Munster have scored 18 tries to the Ospreys 17. Strangely Munster have scored more points away than at home this year, despite the advantage that playing in front of Munster’s loyal supporters at Thomond Park brings. Both teams finish the game strongly with Munster scoring 4 tries in the last 10 minutes and the Ospreys 3.
- Defensively though, the Ospreys have been superb this year. They conceded just 3 tries in all 6 of their pool games. Munster’s 6 was still very impressive, well below the competition average of 13 – none of those 6 tries came in the first half.
- Tommy Bowe is the top try scorer in this year’s Heineken Cup with 5, strangely all 5 coming in a home game against Benetton Treviso, setting a new Heineken Cup record for tries in a game.
- Munster have used the highest proportion of players over 30 this year, with 12 of the 26 featuring being over 30, and only 1 player under 21 – Keith Earls who has started every game.
- The last game of the 6 Nations was a memorable one, Munster contributed 8 players to the Grand Slam winning Irish XV, whilst Ospreys contributed 1 to that Irish team and 8 to the Welsh XV.
- Wayne Barnes is in charge for this game, in his 5 games so far he has given out 5 sin binnings, 4 of which were to the away team. Both teams have had just 2 players sin binned this campaign.
