Conor Murray: Snubbed Munster players can make statement against Leinster

There is no better way to kick start a World Cup season than Leinster versus Munster at the Aviva Stadium.

I wonder if Leo Cullen’s selection is the same 15 players we’ll see for Ireland against Argentina in a fortnight.

Certainly, the Leinster pack has eight established internationals. Joey Carbery at outhalf, instead of the injured Sam Prendergast, is the only starter not included in Andy Farrell’s squad for the Nations Championship.

If Joey hits the ground running at the Aviva, he immediately comes into the frame. That’s the power of this fixture.

Clayton McMillan has enough on his plate to be overly concerned by just two Munster players – Tadhg Beirne and Craig Casey – being named on the 36-man Ireland panel.

Still, McMillan should mention it in passing this week. In between Jared Payne’s three-phase attack patterns or Jimmy Duffy’s lineout sessions, he could slip in the fact that Craig and Tadhg made the cut while everyone else missed out.

I am not suggesting a bias on Andy’s part towards the other provinces. He only selects on form and the potential to develop a player.

But it cannot be glossed over. As everyone in Munster attempts to turn the page on what has been a rough few years, there is no harm carrying a little bitterness up to Dublin.

Really though, it is not the Leinster players taking national contracts off Munster fellas. It is a gang of young Connacht forwards and Ulster backs who have climbed up the pecking order.

Farrell invests in people. He encourages all sorts of personalities to be themselves in camp. He wants the introverts and extroverts to show their true character.

Because it is character that will drag a team through a World Cup campaign and out the other side. That’s the secret to Ireland finally making it past the quarter-final in 2027. A dollop of luck on the injury front and some X-factor is also needed.

It should not come as a surprise to hear the Irish starting XV for Argentina, Fiji and the seemingly invincible Springboks under Rassie Erasmus, will be picked from an established list of 23 or 24 names.

But the Ireland team will have to change, ever so slightly, to challenge South Africa. One or two players need to break through in the next month.

At the very least Leinster and Ireland are thinking outside the box and presumably communicating with each other about Dan Sheehan’s move to number eight.

What’s not to like about this very Erasmus-like move?

Anyone paying attention will know this has not come out of the blue. Cullen moved Dan to the backrow against Sale in the Champions Cup quarter-final last season when Rónan Kelleher arrived at hooker for the last 14 minutes. It worked.

Really, Dan is a backrower disguised as a hooker. Always has been and with Jack Conan joining Caelan Doris on the sidelines, the Ireland captain should be on the pitch for 80 minutes. It makes a lot of sense. Get your best players on the grass for as long as possible.

That said, a Leinster hooker at number eight should be a red rag to Gavin Coombes and Brian Gleeson.

Both men have time to earn a recall, but as it stands Munster players are missing out on an important November camp. The World Cup in Australia next year has four knockout rounds, so the finals weekend at Twickenham next month will be used as a dry run to the final.

This is nothing new. We used to imagine the November series as a quarter-final, semi-final and final.

Leinster are the old enemy and Munster can charge straight into them on Saturday night but, really, it is Stuart Lancaster’s rising tide out west that has caught Farrell’s attention.

It is evident in every position up front: Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong remain the premier props in the country, while Tom O’Toole and Tom Clarkson are the established backups, but it is the Connacht boys Billy Bohan and Sam Illo who have usurped the Munster props.

Bohan and Illo will get a chance to impress at training, or when somebody inevitably goes down injured. Ireland pitch sessions find out what a player is all about.

It’s the same story at secondrow. Beirne will feature beside Joe McCarthy or at blindside. James Ryan and the returning Ryan Baird are two locks Farrell knows he can rely on.

It’s an area of strength but if Ireland’s lineout is to take a giant leap between now and the World Cup, to compete with South Africa and New Zealand, maybe Darragh Murray is the man who can make this happen.

Murray only featured as a second-half sub against Scotland during last season’s Six Nations but he looked like an international lock. He even powered over for a try.

The Roscommon man is named ahead of Evan O’Connell, who already looks like he is benefiting from being coached by his uncle Paul, while Edwin Edogbo and Tom Ahern also missed out.

That’s a serious statement by Farrell. O’Connell has earned a call-up and Edogbo, when fully fit, is as destructive as any forward in the world. But Murray gets the nod on form.

Same story in the backrow. James McNabney, Cian Prendergast and Sean Jansen are picked ahead of Gleeson, Coombes and Seán Edogbo.

McNabney is someone to watch closely to see if he can bring the power surge that big Ulster forwards like Jeremy Davidson and Stephen Ferris added to Ireland down the years.

I can only hope that Munster, with a new CEO coming in, and McMillan a year in the role, will change the narrative around the province.

It’s all well and good saying this. Plenty of Munster sides have come up to Dublin in the past 15 years expecting to damage the Leinster machine. There’s been some flag-planting wins, like last year at Croke Park, that were quickly forgotten due to a lack of consistency.

The narrative will be dictated by the result. Munster players haven’t earned the right to populate the Ireland squad. That doesn’t mean they have to accept it as the way it will go this season.

I can’t wait for the Aviva under lights to see how Charlie O’Shea goes against Joey Carbery in the battle of the number 10s. Didn’t think I’d be writing that sentence about Munster versus Leinster in 2026. Selection can change in an instant.