After months away from their spiritual home, Munster will finally reopen their Thomond Park ground tonight; ironically, the Magners League match is against Glasgow, the last team to beat the Irish province. But as Glasgow prepared to return to the site of that triumph, Sean Lineen, their coach, has appealed for the match officials not to get too carried away by the fervent home atmosphere and to give his team an even break.

“When we won there at the end of last season I had to have a word with the referee and the touch judges at half-time, I was so unhappy with the way things were going, we were getting no decisions going our way,” Lineen said yesterday. “I know that we are playing Munster, the European champions, at the reopening of their stadium and there will be a lot of emotion but we have to be given a chance.

“The game has to be on an even footing. Munster are very, very good at doing the little things well, being aggressive and getting the decisions to go their way. There are two areas of concern for us: the lineout is one - when you play Munster for some strange reason none of your seven jumpers can get off the ground - and also when a player is tackled the person who should roll away is the tackler, we need to make sure that is policed well.”

Thomond Park is expected to be full, which nowadays means more than 25,000, so the pressure will be on Andrew Small, the referee from England, but Lineen believes that if he can stamp his authority on proceedings, then Glasgow have every chance of opening the stadium in the same way that they closed the old version, with a victory.

“We are certainly not going just to make up the numbers,” he said. “If we are given a chance, we know what we have to do. We are looking for consistency and to achieve that we need to make sure we are mentally ready. Training has been outstanding this week, we changed things a bit against the Scarlets [for a 34-20 victory] and the players have bought into that. Now it is down to doing it on the night in a pressure-cooker environment.”

There are two changes to his starting XV, Graeme Morrison being rested at centre with Andrew Henderson, the 50-cap Scotland international, delighted to get his first start of the season. “They will be a tough challenge but we are looking forward to it,” Henderson said. “Last week was really encouraging, now we need to carry that forward. They have a renowned pack, very experienced, but also quick, strong guys in the backs who we will have to watch carefully.”

The biggest problem for Glasgow is that Dan Parks has failed a fitness test on a knock to his knee and misses the game. After struggling for form in early September, he was close to his best last week, so his absence will come as a severe blow, though Colin Gregor, his understudy, should be experienced enough to handle the pressure. After all, he has had lots of chances in Glasgow colours and knows what the big-time is like after years on the sevens circuit.

As for Munster, Tony McGahan, the coach, has made half a dozen changes from the team that defeated Leinster, and is trying to keep the focus on the match, and not the emotion that goes with reopening the stadium. “It is, of course, going to be a marvellous occasion and it's a great tribute to those involved in the construction to bring it to this stage so quickly,” he said. “But it's a league game, there are points on offer and we really can't let ourselves approach this game in any different frame of mind than any other game.”

Munster: K Earls; D Howlett, B Murphy, R Tipoki, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes; P O'Connell (capt), D O'Callaghan, A Quinlan, D Wallace, J Melck. Replacements: D Fogarty, T Buckley, M O'Driscoll, N Ronan, M Prendergast, P Warwick, K Lewis.

Glasgow: B Stortoni; L Fa'atau, M Evans, A Henderson, T Evans; C Gregor, M McMillan; J Va'a, D Hall, M Low, O Palepoi, A Kellock (capt), K Brown, J Barclay, J Beattie. Replacements: E Kalman, K Tkachuk, T Barker, S Swindall, R Jackson, G Morrison, H O'Hare.

Referee: A Small (RFU).