Investec Champions Cup Round of 16
SATURDAY
Leinster v Leicester Tigers (8pm, Aviva Stadium)
Live on RTÉ 2/TNT Sports
SUNDAY
Northampton Saints v Munster (12:30pm, Franklin’s Gardens)
Live on ITV/TNT Sports
Northampton versus Munster, a repeat of the Heineken Cup final of 2000. Back then, a young Ronan O’Gara had four penalty attempts on goal. He missed all four. Munster lost by a solitary point, a typical cup final scoreline, 9-8.
That game is one of the standout reflections in O’Gara’s autobiography released years later. He was labelled a “choker”. A young man learning to ply his trade, castigated, as if it wasn’t tough enough to take as it was.
If they could see him now.
The peculiar, overly complicated, convoluted Investec Champions Cup structure today means that Northampton defeat is far further away on the radar than the one that already took place this season.
Thomond Park losses are rare for Munster, even in the bad times. Think 2011, think 41 phases, clock in the red, O’Gara in the pocket. The opponents on that occasion? Northampton.
These pair have quite the history. If O’Gara was the young gun in 2000, in January 2024 it was Fin Smith. What other way than a drop goal to win it for Saints?
Indeed they’d largely gone out of style in the intermediary period, before being brought back almost single-handedly by George Ford at last year’s World Cup.
If RG Snyman’s fitness is a huge boost for Munster, George Furbank’s absence will be felt by their opponents on their home patch of Franklin’s Gardens.
Furbank was a thorn in Ireland’s side, with his displacement of the towering Freddie Steward in the England 15 shirt proving what is thought of his talents across the water.
Captain Lewis Ludlam does return, with the English side likely to impose their set piece game in a side that also features Courtney Lawes.
Meanwhile, Leinster have been given a number of fitness boosts, with their injury list enough to lure in the production crew of Casualty earlier in the week.
Hugo Keenan’s return to the fold will mean his first appearance since the England defeat in Round Four of the Six Nations, while the first choice Irish front-row of Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong all start.
An interesting positional choice is the choice of Ross Byrne over brother Harry at out-half, with the latter and younger Byrne receiving many plaudits for his performance in Leo Cullen’s charges victory over The Bulls last week.
Leicester will be looking to overturn a 27-10 reversal at the hands of the 2018 champions, with the aforementioned Steward lining out on the wing, while South Africa’s Jasper Wiese is more than a handful at 8.
His Springbok compatriot Handré Pollard will try and pull the strings at out-half, but with the likes of Jack Conan, Ciarán Frawley and Rónán Kelleher held in reserve, the eastern province should have enough to progress to the last eight.
And you get the sense that Munster have one of those performances in them too that will, by hook or by crook, get the job done.