WHEN MUNSTER WERE two from two in the Champions Cup back in October, having just throttled Saracens at Thomond Park, it would have been very hard to envision a scenario where their final pool game at home to Sale would be meaningless.

Many thought Munster might be going into today’s game needing a bonus point win to qualify just like in 2006, when their Heineken Cup-winning heroes channelled a performance of such ferocity that they were able to drive Sebastien Chabal back 20 yards at a time.

Of course after three consecutive losses, Munster’s European ambitions are finished for another season but they still have to host the Salford-based side to round out their pool.

But there are a few points of interest that should make watching the game worth your while. Firstly, Keith Earls is starting his first game for Munster this season.

The highly talented utility back gets shuffled around a lot depending on where he’s needed but he plays at 13 today. If he can show signs of returning to form then Munster’s assault on the Pro12 will be that bit easier.

Also, it will be interesting to see how the Munster team as a whole respond to what must have been one of their worst weeks in a long time. There have been plenty of column inches devoted to their problems this season and captain Peter O’Mahony is determined to shut a few people up this weekend, as well as repaying a few others.

O’Mahony doesn’t buy into the narrative that Munster need a massive injection of overseas talent to remain competitive.

“We’ve heard a lot of it over the years, that we were lacking this or that,” O’Mahony said.

“But we have always prided ourselves on young players coming through and having pride in that jersey. Over the last few weeks we’ve had about 20 homegrown players in our squad.

“The carrot for me is that we let a lot of people down last week who spent their money to travel over. There is a carrot there for us to put it right and show how much it means to us.”

Last weekend’s defeat to Saracens was as low a moment for Munster since they were eliminated at the same stage by Toulon in 2011. The amount of errors was uncharacteristic for a Munster side that pride themselves on execution. O’Mahony singled that out as one area that badly needs improvement against Sale.

“The quantity of mistakes that we made against a team of that calibre, you’re just not going to compete,” O’Mahony said.

“It’s not like us. You’ve got to learn from it and put it behind you. We let a lot of people down last weekend and now we’ve got to put in a big performance.”

Munster

15. Simon Zebo
14. Andrew Conway
13. Keith Earls
12. Denis Hurley
11. Ronan O’Mahony
10. Ian Keatley
9. Duncan Williams

1. James Cronin
2. Duncan Casey
3. BJ Botha
4. Dave Foley
5. Paul O’Connell
6. Dave O’Callaghan
7. Tommy O’Donnell
8. Peter O’Mahony

Replacements

16. Eusebio Guinazu
17. John Ryan
18. Stephen Archer
19. Billy Holland
20. Robin Copeland
21. Ivan Dineen
22. JJ Hanrahan
23. Pat Howard

Sale

15. Luke McClean

14. Tom Brady

13. Andy Forsyth

12. Mark Jennings

11. Tom Arscott

10. Nick Macleod

9. Will Cliff

1. Alberto de Marchi

2. Tommy Taylor

3. Ross Harrison

4. Andrei Ostrikov

5. Josh Beaumont

6. Mark Easter

7. David Seymour Captain

8. Viliami Fihaki

16. Cameron Neild

17. James Flynn

18. Ciaran Parker

19. George Nott

20. Andrew Hughes

21. Nathan Fowles

22. Joe Ford

23. Mike Haley

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