Wayne Pivac’s men are looking to strike at the site of the Ospreys’ brave 19-14 victory in round three. They could inflict the Munstermen’s fifth defeat in six league matches at home if they were to pick up their first win since 2003 at Thomond Park.
But they would have to improve on their away form that has seen them lose eight of their last nine PRO12 games, including the 42-12 thumping at the hands of Leinster.
Anthony Foley’s side shocked the three-time champions 23-34 at the Aviva Stadium last weekend to propel them into the play-off places. And Pivac has made four changes to his side in an attempt to stop the Munster juggernaut and back-up their derby victory against the Newport Gwent Dragons last weekend.
Wales scrum-half Gareth Davies is sidelined with a knee injury that will keep him out of the Munster clash and their European Champions Cup kick-off at Toulon. Aled Davies takes the number nine shirt, with the other three changes coming in the front-row. Out go Rob Evans, Emyr Phillips and Samson Lee and in come Phil John, Kirby Myhill and Rhodri Jones.
Munster captain Peter O’Mahony returns to the back-row as one of eight changes to the Munster side. They also have a new-look front-row, with David Kilcoyne, Kevin O’Byrne and BJ Botha coming in for James Cronin, Duncan Casey and Stephen Archer. JJ Hanrahan will start at out-side half for Ian Keatley and Gerhard van den Heever comes in to join Simon Zebo and Felix Jones in the back three.
Scarlets Head Coach Wayne Pivac said: “Getting four points from last weekend’s game was what we needed to get, it would have been nice to get five but we’ll take the four. If we look at Munster from the loss at home against Edinburgh to where they are now – they’ve made improvements all the way through.
“The energy levels and physicality they brought to the Leinster game over 80 minutes was impressive. They’ll test us defensively and there’s no doubt it’ll be a physical encounter.”
Munster: F Jones, G van den Heever, A Smith, I Dineen, S Zebo; JJ Hanrahan, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, K O’Byrne, BJ Botha; D Foley, B Holland; P O’Mahony (c), T O’Donnell, CJ Stander.
Replacements: E Guinazu, J Cronin, S Archer, D O’Callaghan, R Copeland, D Williams, I Keatley, J Murphy.
Scarlets: L Williams, H Robinson, G Owen, S Williams (c), K Phillips, R Priestland, A Davies; P John, K Myhill, R Jones, J Ball, J Snyman, A Shingler, J Barclay, R Pitman.
Replacements: E Phillips, R Evans, S Lee, G Earle, J Davies, R Williams, S Shingler, M Tagicakibau.
