Donal Lenihan believes Joey Carbery and Tadhg Beirne can transform Munster after both made impressive starts to life with the province.

Carbery excelled at out-half against the Ospreys last weekend after making the move down south from Leinster during the summer, kicking 15 points in a dominant display.

Beirne also impressed in what was his first start for Munster, after starring for Scarlets last season and picking up the Players’ Player of the Season award at the end of a superb campaign.

"The Munster public are doing everything they can to ensure that Joey Carbery feels loved and at home," Lenihan told RTÉ 2fm's Game On.

"Certainly the reaction to his first try and the standing ovation he got after coming off after 55 minutes, I'm quite sure it's something that he might have been a little surprised with.

Carbery in action against the Ospreys

"He can be transformative to this Munster side as, I can add, Tadhg Beirne. I've seen him in the flesh for Scarlets, he had limited opportunities on the Irish tour last year, was capped off the bench. His influence on the game was phenomenal.

"He has this innate football ability to be in the right place at the right time. He just runs these incredible support lines and his skillset for a second-row/back-row is just incredible. I think he's going to add massively to the Munster cause this year."

The World Cup in Japan is looming ever closer and with first-choice scrum-half Conor Murray currently nursing a neck injury, Lenihan was also invited to discuss other options at that position for head coach Joe Schmidt.

John Cooney is performing well for Ulster at present and kicked three penalties in Port Elizabeth against the Southern Kings at the weekend, while Lenihan has also been impressed with Luke McGrath.

Tadhg Beirne

"You've Kieran Marmion, Johnny Cooney and Luke McGrath, they're all fighting for back-up slot. There will be three scrum-halves brought to the World Cup so it's three into four at the moment.

"Cooney is capturing a lot of the headlines, a lot of that is down to the fact that certainly in the opening two games, he was the hero kicking the goal in the last minute in both games. But the general quality of his play is outstanding as well."

He concluded: "We don't know exactly what the position is with Conor Murray at the moment although I saw him coming into the game on Friday night and he didn't look overly worried about the injury so it's a question of when he comes back.

"But even if he was fully fit, I think there's no doubt that Joe Schmidt will certainly be looking to the Italy game in Chicago and the USA game to start two other scrum-halves.

"I think November is going to be interesting from that point of view."