Kidney forced into re-shuffle

MUNSTER’S plans for tonight’s top-of-the-table Celtic League clash with Edinburgh at Murrayfield were thrown into disarray within minutes of yesterday’s team announcement.

Skipper Anthony Foley didn’t make the trip because of son Tony’s illness while Marcus Horan also remained behind having picked up a facial infection similar to “scrum pox”.

Foley’s place at number eight goes to Mick O’Driscoll, normally a second-row forward but no stranger to the back-row. And the value to the squad of the Argentinian-born Italian Freddie Pucciarello is underlined by the fact that he is equally at home on either side of the front-row and so is a ready-made replacement for Horan.