Tonight’s match is the first match that Peter O’Mahony will play for Munster in the Bank of Ireland jersey. Conor Murray has yet to make an appearance for Munster in a match this season in the new jersey.
The last time Munster played Leinster was on 13th April – when Munster wore Toyota jerseys.
If the event in the photograph actually took place at that match or even if the impression to be conveyed is that it was, it does raise some concern as to the truthfulness of the Irish Independent.
I understand that the middle Munster player is C J Stander who has not played against Leinster in a Munster jersey for the first team. He did play for Munster A in a Toyota jersey against Leinster A on 12 March, 2013 but the others in the photograph did not play in that match.
Ian Madigan, Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray, the other three in the photograph,did play in the match on 13th
April.
So it is very possible that the event portrayed did not happen and is an act of fiction created by Photoshop.
To replace the rugby ball with a bunch of papers is one act of distorting the truth. To change the jerseys, to me, is an insult to Toyota who paid Munster for the privilege of branding the jerseys at the time.
More concerning though, it is a distortion of the truth. I would have thought that a newspaper such as the Irish Independent would like to be known for disseminating fact and not fiction.