It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Bad Guys in action in the PRO14.

Nearly six weeks ago, in fact, and that losing effort against Ulster was one of the low points of the season to date. The fragmented nature of the PRO14 schedule this season has disguised Munster’s poor enough run – we’ve lost three of the last five games and are currently on a two game losing skid.

As ever though, context is king.

The loss to Edinburgh – which has played a large part in the current picture at the top of the conference – was smack bang in the middle of a four-game Champions Cup block and demanded heavy rotation as the previous game was against Racing 92 and the next two would be Saracens back to back. A cursory look at Munster’s fixture list would have told clued Edinburgh into our likely selection and they targeted the game appropriately. Munster lost the game by two points against a full-strength Edinburgh selection in a painful loss, from a conference perspective. The back to back losses against Leinster (while rotated) and to Ulster (less rotated, hence the ugly nature of the performance) have Munster sitting in third on 30 points.

It isn’t a dangerous position – not yet – but a bonus point would go a long way to making a nicer looking picture at the top of the conference by the end of the weekend, especially with a depleted Edinburgh visiting Parc Y Scarlets on Saturday.

With that result pressure in mind, it’s refreshing to see a Munster selection with so many younger heads in it.

You might think “it’s just the Kings” but they’re as capable as rumbling Munster here as anyone else. What do they do well? They’ve got a decent offensive lineout – they love a throw over the top to a midfielder – and they’re well capable of hurting you on kick transition or if they can generate momentum ball at the edge of your defence a phase or two after a set-piece launch. With the ball in hand, they play a relatively simple game with nothing much happening if you can shut them down off #9. They play a broad 2-3-2-1 shape but they struggle for physical impact all the way through the line and they tend to kick a bit to try and bait a few kick transitions if they get stuck between their own 22 and the halfway line.

The team selected should be able to stop up the bulk of the Kings’ primary carriers and, barring blitz mistakes or poor kick returns, they shouldn’t have too much for us when they have the ball.

From an offensive perspective, I’m really interested to see how Munster use John Hodnett. Hodnett’s role for the Irish U20s was as a breakdown specialist, running option off the lineout and as a wide carrying threat off one or two passes.

Looking at the way Munster have played over the season to date, I feel that Hodnett would really suit that “lone wolf” wide option at the edge of the 2-3-2-1 scheme we’ve played so far or as the Blindside Two on the other end.

That wide position is something we can really go after with this Kings side. They have a tendency to get a bit laggy and separated once the ball goes beyond a screen or two on a big openside play.

This is a kick through opportunity used by the Cheetahs here – something that will always be on for the likes of Hanrahan, Goggin, Haley and Farrell – but you can see how the Cheetahs accessed that space here.

Connacht, too, found that space regularly against the Kings from a similar starter ruck.

The roots of this issue are in bad folds around defensive rucks from their primary front five defenders. Their front five get crumpled around the contact point and can overload one side or, worse, create a big separation between the inside and edge defence. That can create a lot of space for a wide bore attack to find with one or two passes out the back of a seam.

These kind of pictures are exactly the type of positions that John Hodnett would really suit on multi-phase possession. He can pass and offload, he’s got outstanding acceleration and has a strong, low centre of gravity when hitting contact.

The Kings consistently give up that kind of spacing in the wider channels when there are two passes from a previous ruck on the opposite side of the field. This isn’t even that sharp a sequence from the Cheetahs but they got deep access to the wide area of the Kings 22.

If you pin the Kings in these areas, you’ll get a look at their edge defence.

If the ruck is too far wide on either side, it doesn’t take advantage of the Kings tendency to get clustered by the contact point. If your screens are well put together, and if you have threats with the ball in hand around the middle of the field – Goggin, Farrell, Botha, O’Donoghue – you can buy a bad read from Sithole, Cronje or Hollis.

The same issue shows up for the Kings off wide lineout schemes.

You can see Sithole (Red #13) or Cronje blitzing late and leaving a jagged, gappy edge off full or six-man lineouts.

The presence of Chris Farrell will be a key asset on these lineout scenarios, especially if we choose to give Hodnett a free role on these schemes. We’ll see how it turns out.

A lot of teams have sunk a fair bit of resources into attacking the Kings’ defensive maul – to pretty good effect – so expect Munster to do the same with a number of radiant maul break options being possible. Bobby De Wee will be a threat on our lineout ball as he’s a strong counter jumper but if we have a reliable lineout platform, we should have a reliable way to consistently stress the Kings defence without getting too complex.