Rugby: Gaffney holds back
Instead, the Munster coach will today announce a squad of 24 from which the starting 15 and seven replacements will be finalised. He insists there is no special reason for delaying but there is considerable speculation about full-back and inside centre after last week’s game at Bourgoin.
Jeremy Staunton was replaced at full-back after 70 minutes, with Mossy Lawlor coming in on the wing and Shaun Payne moving to full-back. Rob Henderson returned after long term injury for Jason Holland and made an immediate impression.
“We’ve been through the videos; there were some good performances, some reasonable performances and we’ve got a lot of good guys on the bench, and obviously there are positions that are always going to be contested, so we’ve got to figure out the best combination for this game,” Gaffney explained.
“We weren’t great over there. We defended pretty well right through the game, except for the one try when our pattern fell apart, and there were other parts of the game when we got caught, but we scrambled very well.
“We put in some very good offensive tackles and turned a lot of ball over. There were some huge Frankie Sheahan hits in midfield, as well [hits from] Donnacha [O’Callaghan], Paulie [O’Connell] and Axle [Anthony Foley].
"That part of our performance was fine. But I think our attack was a bit stilted. While there was some great line-out ball, I don’t think we worked our plays off the line-out particularly well and didn’t take advantage of the amount of quality ball we had.”
Gaffney stressed that “this is not a criticism of any one individual as such but we’ve just got to get cuter the way we do things. We had opportunities to score tries and that’s been one of the great bugbears of the Celtic League this year, with the international players away we have created the chances but not scored.”
Understandably, the coach won’t discuss individual positions, although it is clear Staunton’s claims at 15 are now somewhat tenuous, while Holland is under pressure at 12 from Henderson.
“Shaun Payne is a good player. Jeremy got into the game, got out of the game, it’s just a situation of getting confidence into him,” said Gaffney.
“If you don’t hit this ball right, it won’t travel. To give Rog [Ronan O’Gara] his due, he struck it very well. We have options at full-back and we have options at 12.
“Hendo coming back after three months gave us a bit of oomph in midfield and that’s not denigrating Dutchy [Jason Holland] at all, for he is a very good player. Sometimes you pick a team on the basis of horses for courses.”
Meanwhile, Munster continue without the great Christian Cullen, who was expected to make such a difference to the attacking qualities of the squad.
Gaffney sees no point in dwelling too much on it.
“The next major re-examination of the shoulder is in mid-January so we have to write Christian off for the first four games at least,” he accepts.
“Obviously, he’s a guy who works very hard on his injuries and we’re hopeful of having him for the last two games of the pool stages.
“He’s travelled a long way and it’s very frustrating for him. But he’s here for three years, not three months, so he’s a short, medium and long term solution for us. He’s very professional and will get back as soon as possible.”
Left winger Anthony Horgan missed Bourgoin because of a recurrence of hamstring trouble and although he took part in the first of yesterday’s two training sessions at Thomond Park, is unlikely to return against Treviso.
“It’s not essential. If we were playing in the final of Europe tomorrow, he’d play. It’s not the same problem he’s had in the past, it’s in the same leg but in a different spot.”
Of the other major injury worries, Denis Leamy and Mike Prendergast are unlikely to play again this season but Alan Quinlan will be back should Munster qualify for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup.
Peter Stringer sat out yesterday afternoon because of tendon damage to his hand but should be there on Saturday.
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