Leinster v Munster Preview | Stats based head to head of front rows and Prendergast v Crowley

Leinster host Munster at Croke Park with the hosts welcome back four Lions in their seven changes and the visitors make 10 changes and welcome back Tadhg Beirne to the starting line up. Leinster have one win from their three games while Munster are one of two unbeaten sides this season.

Let's take a look at the front rows followed by the much spoken about battle at 10 between Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley.

Front Rows:

When looking at work rate for the front rankers and forwards we combined the carries, tackles and rucks (CTR) to understand and highight their involvement in the game. Combined the starting front rows average nealy the same with the Leinster group just over 42 per 80 minutes and Munster on 41. 

Tadhg Furlong is the highest so far this season with a CTR of 46 per 80 minutes with John Ryan the lowest on 36. 

While the scrums have not been great for Leinster to start the season, their starting front row has a good record individually with Paddy McCarthy the only one to have lost a scrum, being penalised twice this season at the set piece. McCarthy, however, has four scrum penalty wins and five outright wins. Both Furlong and Kelleher have three wins and a scrum penalty win from the scrum.

Diarmuid Barron is the only of the starting Munster front row to concede a penalty at scrum time. He however does have three scrum penalties awarded to him this season with Milne and Ryan contributing one each with Milne having four outright scrum wins and Ryan five.

Battle of the 10's:

Sam Prendergast has yet to get a win this season and will still be having nightmares from the nilling his side got in Cape Town at the hands of the Stormers. Jack Crowley on the other hand has been at the heart of some of Munster's great play and has been at the helm in two of the three wins so far this season.

Crowley has a far superior Attack Win Percentage where he creates a positive outcome from 21% of his touches, Sam Prendergast sits at 10%. Prendergast however has created marginally more try assist and line break passes than Crowley with the Leinsterman contributing five to the four of his opposite number on Saturday.

The kick plans for both 10's are different with Sam Prendergast kicking 740m so far this season, he averages 34m a kick with just 9% of his kicks resulting in Leinster retaining the possession. Crowley averages 19m per kick has kicked 370m but Munster regain possession from 21% of his kicks.