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Page last updated at 12:07 GMT, Thursday, 10 September 2009 13:07 UK

Munster v Blues (Fri)

MAGNERS LEAGUE
Venue: Thomond Park, Limerick Date: 11 September Kick-off: 1905 BST Coverage: Live on BBC Two Wales & online, score updates on BBC Sport website


Sam Norton-Knight
Norton-Knight had a disastrous Blues debut in the loss to Edinburgh

The Blues have dropped new fly-half Sam Norton-Knight to the bench for Friday's league clash at champions Munster after the Australian's nightmare debut.

Ceri Sweeney takes his place, while John Yapp, Rhys Thomas, Taufa'ao Filise and Deiniol Jones come into the pack, Lion Andy Powell returning as reserve.

Alan Quinlan returns for Munster after his 12-week eye gouging ban expired while John Hayes will also start.

Barry Murphy will start at centre after coming on as a replacement in Glasgow.

Hayes comes into the front row in place of Tony Buckley while Quinlan takes over from Billy Holland.

The only other change in the starting line-up from the Glasgow game sees Murphy taking over from Tom Gleeson in the backs.

Quinlan declared himself, "delighted to be pulling on that Munster shirt again".

"Pre-season has gone really well and I feel in good shape but its a big step up from training, a game like this and particularly when it's against a quality side like Cardiff," said Quinlan.

Paul O'Connell and Munster's other Lions are still sidelined.

Blues boss defends Norton-Knight

Champions Munster have lost two of their last three in the league, but have won their last seven home matches in all competitions.

The Blues are on a three-game losing streak and have not won at Thomond Park since 2004, but they have won their last two matches in Ireland.

"The frustrating thing for me is, for season on season, we are awfully slow starters," said Blues coach Dai Young.

606: DEBATE

"I think last season, for the first three games we were very poor.

"You can't peak for 10 months, but we certainly want to be better.

"The attitude from the players is to work harder. A few people wrote us off at the start of last season but we cracked on and got things right.

"Munster are a quality team, this is the sort of challenge that we've said we want season on season.

"Not all their Lions are playing but neither are ours.

"They'll be hurting after last week. I could be a bad time to play them, but we've done reasonably well there in the past."


Munster: F Jones; D Howlett, B Murphy, L Mafi, D Hurley; J Manning, P Stringer; M Horan, D Fogarty, J Hayes; M O'Driscoll capt, D Ryan; A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy. Replacements: D Varley, T Buckley, B Holland, T O'Donnell, T Morland, S Deasy, T Gleeson.

Blues: Ben Blair; Leigh Halfpenny, Gareth Thomas, Dafydd Hewitt, Chris Czekaj; Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Cooper; John Yapp, Rhys Thomas, Taufa'ao Filise, Deiniol Jones, Paul Tito, Maama Molitika, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Xavier Rush.
Replacements: Gary Powell, Gareth Williams, Scott Morgan, Andy Powell, Richie Rees, Sam Norton-Knight, Dafydd James.

Referee: Peter Allan (SRU)



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see also
Norton-Knight 'will come good'
05 Sep 09 |  Cardiff Blues
Quinlan talks of 'massive regret'
26 Aug 09 |  Rugby Union
Quinlan contests ban in Lions bid
18 May 09 |  Rugby Union
Quinlan Lions place under threat
03 May 09 |  Rugby Union
Magners Celtic League 2009/10
14 Jul 09 |  Rugby Union
RaboDirect Pro12 table
09 Aug 06 |  Tables
Regional rugby archive
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Coming up next on Scrum V...
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BBC Sport NI coverage
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BBC Scotland programme guide
26 Jul 09 |  Scotland
BBC Sport Wales coverage
03 Oct 11 |  Wales


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