Munster will get it right, says Gaffney

ALAN GAFFNEY has shouldered part of the responsibility for Munster’s poor Celtic League opening but believes his side can set the record straight against Connacht at Thomond Park on Saturday.

The Munster coach says if he could turn the clock back he would have arranged a third pre-season friendly before the start of the Celtic League.

“Given the lengthy and demanding nature of the season, I thought two games was about right for us, but I now know that we could have really done with another to better prepare for the game with the Ospreys.”

But if Gaffney, like Leinster counterpart Declan Kidney, finds himself unable to field his strongest side because all regular internationals are unavailable, he is not complaining.

“I said at the start of the season that we are in a much better situation than we were this time last year. We don’t have any major injury problems and the younger members of the squad have benefited from the experience of last season. A lot of them are more street-wise.

“OK, the Ospreys had a much more experienced side but I still feel it was a game we could have won with the team we had on the pitch. If they had played like they did against Newcastle I don’t have any doubt about that. They didn’t play well, they conceded a couple of silly tries and turned over way too much possession.

“Turnovers tend to be more regular at this stage of the season but we still gave them back too much ball and that’s something we’ll have to work hard on.”

Arguably, Munster go into Saturday’s game with Connacht as outsiders, something that hasn’t really happened in the past when the provinces met.

Connacht had a deserved win over Glasgow last week but Gaffney is taking little note of their good start.

“Without disrespect to them, we’ve really got to look at ourselves and put our own house in order. We’ve got to look at matching or improving on the performance against Newcastle. We proved in that one that we can live with and beat a very good side and a lot of the young guys grew in stature that night.

“We had a very bad start against the Ospreys but, in a match during which both sides looked rusty, they didn’t deserve to be 20 points up at half-time and we didn’t deserve to be 20 points down.

“It’s important that we don’t allow Connacht or any of the other teams to get away to such a good start.”

Gaffney awaits news of former Australian second row Tom Bowman, for whom a work permit has been sought, and he hopes that his release papers will arrive from Worcester this week.

In the meantime, he has his fingers crossed that Mossie Lawlor’s visit to a specialist in Dublin today will clear the back to resume training quickly. Lawlor has a shoulder injury and is seeking expert advice to establish the exact nature of the injury.

Both the Munster and Leinster teams are expected to be named tomorrow for this weekend’s fixtures.

In the meantime, Leinster hope to solve their long-standing problems at out-half by completing the signing David Holwell from the Wellington Hurricanes.

The 29-year-old former team-mate of Christian Cullen will sign pending a medical and confirmation of his release from a NZRFU contract.

Should the deal go through, Holwell is expected to arrive in Ireland in early October, where he will be primed for Leinster’s Heineken Cup opener away to Treviso.

In Leinster’s four games so far this season, Kidney has started with three different out-halves. Against Cardiff on Sunday he was even forced to deploy Brian O’Meara in the position following the substitution of Clontarf youngster David McAllister.

The arrival of Holwell, however, could put an end to the experimentation and give Leinster the pivot they need.

The Kiwi has played Super 12 rugby with the Hurricanes since 1998, and although he’s been in and out of the side in recent seasons, he’s highly regarded as a both a place-kicker and a player with the ability to get his back line moving.

Elsewhere, the IRFU have confirmed that Ireland will tour Japan next summer. The Irish side will be without any players selected to travel on the Lions tour to New Zealand, which should give a lot of young players on the fringes of the squad a taste of international rugby. Also, with Eddie O’Sullivan expected to take up a role within Clive Woodward’s management team for the Lions tour, it appears likely that Niall O’Donovan will lead the squad to the Far East.

Ireland will play three games on the three-week tour, with the opposition and venue for the warm-up game yet to be confirmed, but tests will take place in Tokyo on June 12 and 19.