Shane Daly: Munster targeting 'massive' Christmas Interpros

It was hard not to gasp when Munster and Ulster released their weekly injury reports within 20 minutes of each other on Monday evening.

You could come close to a pretty good combined XV of injured players between the two provinces for their meeting in Belfast this evening, but that is unlikely to dent the intensity of this festive Interpro.

Given how both teams have started the season, whoever is beaten tonight at Kingspan Stadium will be left with plenty to stew on over Christmas.

Hosts Ulster lie 10th in the table on 17 points, one place and one point ahead of Munster. With another round of Interpro games coming on 27/28 December to bring up the midway stage of the URC regular season, the next week will have a big say on how both sides feel heading into the new year.

"These are massive games anyway despite where you are in the table. Every year, these are games that you really want to win more than any others," Munster wing Shane Daly said earlier this week.

"It's the inter-provincial rivalries where a lot of us are friends, but when it comes to the game days, there's no friends involved, and it's about putting Munster back where it should be, which is the top of the log in those scenarios.

"So that's what we're pushing to do, and these games are hugely competitive for us."

Daly, who turned 28 yesterday, marked his 100th Munster appearance with a sensational try in their Investec Champions Cup win against Stade Francais earlier this month (below), but sat out last week's defeat to Castres as a precaution, having had to undergo a head injury assessment after the Stade victory.

And the Cork man says it was a special feeling to bring up a century of appearances in red.

"It's massive for me. My family are huge Munster fans. They