Munster

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Craig Casey has recovered from a shoulder injury to start for Munster in Saturday's Investec Champions Cup game with Castres.

The Ireland scrum-half was forced off in the second half of Sunday's loss to Toulon but has been passed fit to start in Limerick.

Head coach Clayton McMillan has made three changes from that defeat as Thaakir Abrahams, Niall Scannell and Jean Kleyn come into the side.

Ireland forward Tadhg Beirne will win his 100th Munster cap in the final European Pool game.

Munster are fourth in Pool Two and will likely need a victory to secure their place in the knockout stages, while Castres are bottom but can leapfrog the Irish province with victory at Thomond Park.

Abrahams joins Shane Daly and Ben O'Connor in the back three while Alex Nankivell and Tom Farrell have retained their places at centre as Jack Crowley will partner Casey at half-back.

The front row comprises of Jeremy Loughman, the returning Scannell and Michael Ala'alatoa, and Kleyn and Fineen Wycherley pack down in the second row.

Centurion Beirne will captain the side from the back row alongside Jack O'Donoghue and Gavin Coombes.

Prop Oli Jager is named on the bench and is set to make his first appearance since sustaining a head injury in October.

Munster: S Daly; T Abrahams; T Farrell, A Nankivell; B O'Connor; J Crowley, C Casey; J Loughman, N Scannell, M Ala'alatoa; J Kleyn, F Wycherley; T Beirne (C), J O'Donoghue, G Coombes.

Replacements: L Barron, M Milne, O Jager, E Edogbo, B Gleeson, E Coughlan, JJ Hanrahan, D Kelly.

Snyman, Ringrose and O'Brien return for Leinster

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Leinster will welcome back a trio of internationals for their final Pool Three match in Bayonne.

South African second row RG Snyman and Ireland backs Garry Ringrose and Jimmy O'Brien will all make their first appearances since December.

Ireland second row James Ryan will make his 50th European appearance for the Irish province.

Leo Cullen's side have already qualified for the knockout stages while Bayonne are bottom of the Pool and without a point.

O'Brien will join Tommy O'Brien and Joshua Kenny in the back three while Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw will form a familiar centre partnership.

Harry Byrne has been rewarded for his match-winning kick against La Rochelle and starts at fly-half alongside Jamison Gibson-Park.

Prop Tadhg Furlong begins in the front row with Ronan Kelleher and Jack Boyle, while Synman and Ryan will partner at lock.

The back row comprises of Max Deegan, Josh van der Flier and captain Caelan Doris. Leinster have also named a strong bench which includes Dan Sheehan, Joe McCarthy, Sam Prendergast and All Black Rieko Ioane.

Leinster: J O'Brien; T O'Brien; G Ringrose, R Henshaw; J Kenny; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; J Boyle, R Kelleher, T Furlong; RG Snyman, J Ryan; M Deegan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt).

Replacements: D Sheehan, J Cahir, T Clarkson, J McCarthy, S Penny, L McGrath, S Prendergast, R Ioane.

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Ireland scrum-half Craig Casey's shoulder injury will be assessed ahead of Munster's Investec Champions Cup game with Castres.

Casey, 26, was forced off in the second half of the defeat by Toulon on Sunday and head coach Clayton McMillan said post-match that the injury looked "reasonably serious".

However, the injury does not appear to be as bad as first feared and he could feature in Munster's final pool match in Limerick on Saturday (17:30 GMT).

Ireland's Six Nations campaign begins in France on 5 February and the news will be welcome to head coach Andy Farrell after Casey had established himself as deputy to Jamison Gibson-Park.

Meanwhile, Connacht prop Finlay Bealham is expected to be unavailable for "a couple of weeks" after he injured his knee in the United Rugby Championship defeat by Leinster.

There is also concern for Leinster prop Paddy McCarthy, who sustained a "significant foot injury" in the dramatic European win over La Rochelle, and Andrew Porter will be assessed for an ongoing calf concern.

There is better news as prop Tadhg Furlong is set to return in Leinster's final pool match in Bayonne on Saturday (15:15 GMT), and backs Garry Ringrose and Jimmy O'Brien will be available while full-back Hugo Keenan has returned to training but will not play in France.

Versatile back Ciaran Frawley was also forced off in the win over La Rochelle with a foot injury and he will be assessed ahead of the game in Bayonne.

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Munster are set to welcome their Ireland internationals back for Sunday's Investec Champions Cup pool encounter with Toulon at Stade Felix Mayol (13:00 GMT).

Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley and Tom Farrell were all rested for last week's United Rugby Championship loss to in-form Ulster in Belfast.

However, Munster head coach Clayton McMillan will be without John Hodnett (thumb) and Alex Kendellen (ankle) because of injury.

Centre Alex Nankivell is fit after picking up a knock against Ulster, while prop Oli Jager has resumed full training after three months out following a concussion against Edinburgh on 18 October.

Munster opened their Champions Cup campaign with a resounding 31-3 win over Gloucester before suffering a heavy 40-14 loss away to Bath.

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Munster head coach Clayton McMillan felt his side were "poor" in their United Rugby Championship loss against Ulster on Friday night but said his side will "bounce back" from a poor run.

After making a strong start to the campaign, Munster have struggled over recent weeks and have now lost four of their past six including back-to-back Irish derbies against Leinster and Ulster.

Against the latter at Affidea Stadium, Richie Murphy's side had only a narrow 6-3 lead at half-time before tries from Tom Stewart, Jake Flannery and Bryn Ward after the restart secured a comfortable 28-3 win for the hosts.

The result put an end to Munster's three-game winning run against Ulster and saw the northern province jump above their Irish rivals in the table.

"We trained well during the week and expected a much better performance across the board," McMillan told BBC Sport NI.

"We didn't get it, and we weren't allowed to get it through a quality, physical Ulster side, so full credit to them.

"They [Ulster] won the scraps on the ground and were able to build a little bit of momentum off that, the breakdown was poor, we lost races and we carried high. We had a couple of good moments but, overall, were poor again."

The defeat dropped Munster to sixth in the URC table before they turn their attention to the Champions Cup and Sunday's game against Top 14 side Toulon (13:00 GMT).

McMillan added he needs to "find out what will bring a turn of form" before their trip to the Stade Mayol.

"It is just our execution, which is becoming a recurring theme so, first and foremost, the coaches will look at ourselves before we look at the players," said the head coach in his first season at Thomond Park.

"We need to reflect again and start thinking about what will bring a turn of form. We are hanging in there, but we haven't been that compelling with anything that we have done.

"We have a good group and we will bounce back, but you would like to have a bit more consistency and not have to go through performances like that to get a response."

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Ulster head coach Richie Murphy says there is a "great buzz" around the northern province this season.

Friday night's 28-3 interpro triumph over Munster lifted the side into second place in the United Rugby Championship and they have won six of eight games played in the league this season.

Having finished 14th last season, above only Zebre and Dragons in the table, it has been a dramatic turnaround at the Affidea Stadium so far in 2025-26.

"There's a great buzz down in the changing room," said the head coach in his second full season in the job.

"There's confidence growing. There's a real belief. There's a real hunger. The atmosphere on a daily basis is great.

"The lads are turning up and they're hungry for work."

Murphy has been impressed by the contributions of 21-year-old pair Bryn Ward and Joe Hopes in recent weeks and feels it was important to increase the depth of his panel this season after a host of experienced departures in recent summers.

"There's a few others that we want to try and get in over these next couple of weeks to try and build out our squad because that's one of the things that is going to be really important come the back end of the tournament.

"The challenge in training is a lot better now because, one, we've a healthier squad than we did last year and those young guys are learning from the experience.

"Our older guys, the Iain Hendersons, the Rob Herrings, the Jacob Stockdales, Nick Timoneys, they're really driving the place forward.

"The young lads are really hungry as well, so it's great."

In their latest victory, Ulster had led only 6-3 at half-time in snowy conditions but made their dominance count in the second half with three tries and 22 unanswered points to ensure they would leapfrog Munster in the table despite not picking up the four-try bonus point in the final minutes.

"Just early on in the game, we couldn't quite break them down and we didn't look after the ball quite well enough, but we put them under a hell of a lot of pressure and I suppose that told in the second half," Murphy added.

"I still think we tried and we tried hard to play [in the first half].

"We were the team that were trying to move the ball to space and get our big ball carrying wingers into the game and I thought we'd done that really well, just probably a little bit disappointed that we couldn't get that final try."

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Leinster have named fit-again Andrew Porter and captain Caelan Doris in their starting team to face Munster in Saturday's United Rugby Championship interprovincial derby at Thomond Park (19:45 GMT).

Prop Porter is included in a Leinster starting XV for the first time since October after recovering from an arm injury.

Ireland internationals Robbie Henshaw, Jamison Gibson-Park, Ronan Kelleher, Joe McCarthy, Max Deegan and Josh van der Flier are among the other players drafted in by Leo Cullen, who makes 11 personnel changes in total.

Leinster began their series of Irish interpros by defeating Ulster 24-20 at the Aviva Stadium on Friday to make it four wins from seven outings in the competition so far.

Munster meanwhile make seven changes from the side that started Saturday's bonus-point win over Ospreys in Wales on Saturday, a result which saw them climb to second in the table.

Captain Tadhg Beirne, Thaakir Abrahams, Craig Casey, Michael Milne, Lee Barron, Edwin Edogbo and Tom Ahern all come into the starting XV.

There are two positional changes as Shane Daly moves to full-back and Jack O'Donoghue switches from blind-side to open-side flanker.

John Ryan is set to make his 250th appearance for Munster off the replacements' bench, becoming only the third player after Donncha O'Callaghan and Stephen Archer to hit the milestone for the province.

He is joined among the replacements by Diarmuid Barron and Dan Kelly who both return from injury.

Munster: Daly; Nash, Farrell, Nankivell, Abrahams; Crowley, Casey; Milne, Barron, Ala'alatoa; Edogbo, Ahern; Beirne, O'Donoghue, Coombes.

Replacements: Barron, Loughman, Ryan, Kleyn, Wycherley, Patterson, Kelly, Hodnett.

Leinster: Frawley; O'Brien, Ioane, Henshaw, Lowe; Byrne, Gibson-Park; Porter, Kelleher, Clarkson; McCarthy, Ryan; Deegan, van der Flier, Doris (capt).

Replacements: McKee, P McCarthy, Furlong, Mangan, Penny, Gunne, Tector, Osborne.

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Ireland scrum-half Craig Casey has signed a two-year contract extension at Munster to remain with the province until at least 2028.

The 26-year-old has made 104 appearances for Munster since his debut in 2019, scoring 22 tries.

Casey was part of the Munster side that won the United Rugby Championship in 2023, featuring 18 times across the campaign.

He captained Munster for the first time in their 34-21 win over Scarlets in the URC in September and has scored two tries in three appearances for Clayton McMillan's side this season.

The 24-capped Ireland international won the Grand Slam with Andy Farrell's side in 2023 and the Six Nations title in 2024.

He captained Ireland for the first time on the 2025 summer tour and led the side to victories over Georgia and Portugal.