Ho ho ho — a belated Happy Christmas from all here at TheScore.ie. Now, let’s go and see if Santa left us a late present down in Thomond Park.

Munster v Leinster kicks off at 5pm and we’ll have every update you’ll need.

Here are the teams as named on Christmas Eve. There’s one late change for Leinster with Colm O’Shea on the bench in place of Noel Reid.

MUNSTER

15. Felix Jones (captain)
14. Andrew Conway
13. Pat Howard
12. Denis Hurley
11. Ronan O’Mahony
10. Ian Keatley
9. Duncan Williams
1. John Ryan
2. Duncan Casey
3. Stephen Archer
4. Donncha O’Callaghan
5. Billy Holland
6. CJ Stander
7. Tommy O’Donnell
8. Robin Copeland

Replacements:

16. Kevin O’Byrne
17. Eusebio Guinazu
18. BJ Botha
19. Dave O’Callaghan
20. Paddy Butler
21. Neil Cronin
22. JJ Hanrahan
23. Johne Murphy

LEINSTER

15. Zane Kirchner
14. Darragh Fanning
13. Luke Fitzgerald
12. Gordon D’Arcy
11. Dave Kearney
10. Ian Madigan
9. Isaac Boss
1. Michael Bent
2. Richardt Strauss
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Mike McCarthy
5. Kane Douglas
6. Dominic Ryan
7. Shane Jennings (captain)
8. Jack Conan

Replacements:

16. Aaron Dundon
17. Maks Van Dyk
18. Jamie Hagan
19. Tom Denton
20. Jordi Murphy
21. Luke McGrath
22. Jimmy Gopperth
23. Colm O’Shea

Big news: Santa is in Thomond. We’re practically guaranteed a cracker now!

Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

If you’ve any money left after the St Stephen’s Day horse racing and fancy a flutter, here are the odds.

• Munster 1/2
• Leinster 13/8
• Draw 17/1

The bookies make Munster the four-point favourites – can Matt O’Connor’s men spoil the party?

@OverTheHillProp isn’t too pleased by the “rotated” starting XVs

Our man Murray Kinsella is well wrapped up in Thomond Park and counting down the minutes to kick off.

On Nigel Owens’ signal, Ian Madigan gets us underway

Munster pull down the game’s first lineout and form a maul. The Leinster pack is pinged for collapsing and Ian Keatley will have a chance to kick the game’s opening points.

Munster 3-0 Leinster: Straight as you like, Keatley splits the posts and Munster take an early lead.

Munster 3-3 Leinster: Munster don’t roll away and it gives the other Ian a chance to level things with a penalty 30 metres out and straight in front of the post. No bother to him.

Keatley spots some space as the Leinster line charges up to meet him and dinks the ball into touch. Leinster take the lineout and clear without too much difficulty.

That’s really unlucky by Richardt Strauss who looked to have ripped the ball from Jones in the tackle. Munster get the numbers there to prevent the turnover and then Keatley finds touch deep inside the Leinster 22. Superb work at the breakdown.

A worrying moment here as Dominic Ryan goes down injured. Munster are hammering the ball through the phases inside the 22 and as Donncha O’Callaghan tries to break through, Ryan gets his head on the wrong side of the tackle and ships a big hit.

Nigel Owens immediately spots the injury and stops the game immediately. Ryan seems to be okay after a minute or so of treatment, although Jordi Murphy is on in his place now.

Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

BOD noticed the good refereeing:

Murray Kinsella in Thomond Park:

A tense battle for territory so far at Thomond Park. Both teams kicking out of their own halves at every opportunity. Munster dominant in the kicking game at this stage, thanks to a really aggressive chase, poor Leinster handling and positioning and Keatley’s accuracy with the boot. It’s low-risk stuff maybe, but smart in these conditions.

Munster 8-3 Leinster: CJ Stander loses his jersey but still manages to crash over for the game’s opening try. Great work by Munster to keep the ball in hand, and by Tommy O’Donnell in particular to drive them up towards the line.

The conversion seems relatively straightforward but Keatley is off the mark. Still, the five-point lead is no more than Munster deserve at this point.

Jones takes a super line coming in off the left wing and Keatley finds him with a beautiful inside pass. Jones shrugs off Kirchner and hares into the Leinster half before he’s eventually dragged to ground by Madigan.

Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

The Stander try looks like it will be one for the rugby trivia buffs. The big South African lost his jersey earlier in the passage but had no time to retrieve it until after he scored.

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Murray Kinsella in Thomond Park:

That Ian Keatley break was a brilliant example of a back spotting a heavy forward in the defensive line and exploiting it. Tadhg Furlong was the man Keatley arced outside, showing up that lack of pace. A lovely calm pass to Jones on the switch too. Munster’s out-half has been very impressive so far at Thomond Park.

Leinster work the ball for 20ish phases and are camped on the Munster line, only to lose the turnover. It looks like Felix Jones with the ball at the bottom of the pile.

Munster forced into a change — Paddy Butler is on to replace Robin Copeland. More on that as we get it.

Munster 8-6 Leinster: Brilliant scrummaging by Leinster who have been second-best so far but are still within the kick of a ball as we near the half-hour. They force a penalty on the 22 and Madigan steps up to slot it.

Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

Munster 11-6 Leinster: Keatley responds immediately with a penalty as Leinster are pinged for not rolling away just outside the 22.

Another penalty and Madigan has a chance to add three more for Leinster. It’s not an easy one by any stretch, way out on the left, and it squirts just wide of the left post.

There appears to have been some crowd noise during Madigan’s kick but the man with the mic in Thomond Park has stepped in to sort things out.

Munster 11-6 Leinster

It hasn’t quite been a classic, but in the conditions, defence was always likely to trump attack. Munster have been the better side in the opening 40, largely down to a few flashes of inspiration from Ian Keatley.

We’ll be back in five.

We’re up and running again.

Munster 18-6 Leinster: Andrew Conway scores for Munster! It’s a great attack, first through Denis Hurley and Pat Howard in the centre. When the ball is recycled, Keatley fires a quick pass off his left side to the charging Conway who bursts past Jennings, Boss and Fanning to drive over the line.

Keatley adds the extras and Leinster are facing an uphill battle now.

Big blow for Leinster as they’re pinged for not releasing inside Munster territory. That’s sapped the momentum they had been building.

Dave O’Callaghan is on to replace Tommy O’Donnell for Munster.

Darragh Fanning is sent to the bin by Nigel Owens. It looks very harsh on the Leinster winger. The ball appeared to have rolled beyond CJ Stander’s back foot in the ruck and was playable before Fanning dashed around the corner to pounce on it, but it’s not how the Welsh ref sees things. Leinster are down to 14.

Munster 21-6 Leinster: Keatley makes no mistake with the resulting penalty and Munster have quite a bit of daylight between themselves and the visitors.

Murray Kinsella in Thomond Park:

Leinster are really struggling defensively around the fringes of the rucks. Munster are making big metres and generating important momentum with their pick and jams in narrow areas. It’s been an issue for Leinster over the last 12 months or so, and no one has taken advantage as much as Munster, both here and in the Aviva fixture earlier this season.

Double change for Munster as JJ Hanrahan and BJ Botha come on for Denis Hurley and Stephen Archer.

Keatley has a chance to stretch Munster even further in front but his penalty from the halfway line drops just short.

Munster 28-6 Leinster: Dave O’Callaghan dives over for Munster’s third! Not for the first time tonight, the Leinster defence is gone AWOL and O’Callaghan picks from the base of the ruck and ploughs through the gap to score. Keatley tacks on two more.

This is all getting a little bit embarrassing for Leinster now.

Changes on both sides — Jimmy Gopperth is on for Darragh Fanning; Eusebio Guinazu on for John Ryan for Munster

More changes as Luke McGrath comes on for Isaac Boss; for Munster, Duncan Casey is replaced by Kevin O’Byrne.

Munster 28-13 Leinster: Shane Jennings gets his name on the scoresheet for Leinster’s first try but Jack Conan deserves most of the credit. He does brilliantly to fend off a few half-hearted Munster challenges and then ships a pass out the side door for Jennings to score without too much difficulty.

Madigan converts. If nothing else, Leinster are threatening to make the last few minutes interesting.

CJ Stander thinks he’s home and hosed for his second try, and Munster’s fourth, after a Leinster lineout misses everybody and drops into his lap. Nigel Owens has correctly whistled though as Billy Holland pulled Jordi Murphy’s arm back as they contested the lineout.

Ferocious defending by Munster inside their own 22. The game is practically up, and they’re going to win regardless, but they still don’t want to give Leinster a sniff. Anthony Foley will be delighted by that sort of effort.

Munster 28-13 Leinster

Great performance by Munster but in truth, Leinster made it all too easy for them at times. No excuses for the visitors who were second best throughout. CJ Stander is named Man of the Match.

The win sees Munster move to the top of the Pro12 table, although Ospreys and Glasgow have both played a game less. Leinster are fourth, five points adrift.

We’ll more reaction and analysis over the course of the evening because we have no homes to go to! Thanks for reading.