Payne barrier for Munster ahead of clash with Dragons
Payne is a huge loss, all the more so because he will be replaced by Mossie Lawler, Jeremy Manning or Barry Murphy, none of whom has the same experience, especially at Heineken Cup level.
On the plus side, David Wallace has recovered from a thigh injury, and will take his place at number seven.
John Kelly is also back from injury and will challenge Anthon Pitout for the right wing position. Ronan O’Gara will play, in spite of a head cold.
Coach Declan Kidney has a few other decisions to make before officially naming his team and reserves at noon today. Last night he announced a panel of 26, all of whom will travel to the south of Wales, including Tony Buckley, John O’Sullivan, Paul Burke and Kelly, none of whom was directly involved last week.
It’s a game of massive importance and one Munster can ill afford to lose if they are to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup for the ninth successive year. Kidney believes Munster “should qualify if we win the remaining four matches”.
The coach expressed his gratitude to the clubs who must go into AIL League action without a few players who won’t even figure on the bench tomorrow, but he explained: “Should something happen to a player, you want to have a minimum cover with you if at all possible. Shaun Payne just wasn’t right but he’s recovering and we’re hopeful he’ll be fit from next week.”
Kidney is better able to predict what might evolve in the cauldron that will be Rodney Parade, given that he was the Dragons coach for a short period before arriving back to Munster after his stint with Leinster.
In that spell, he came to like and admire everybody involved with the club.
“It was the calibre of the people, not too dissimilar to ourselves,” he said.
“Some were based in Swansea, some in Bristol, and they came together for the sessions. The banter was good, they play for each other, and it’s a real rugby club with traditions and an extremely tough side to beat. They’ll have Luke Charteris, Ian Gough, Pete Sidoli, Michael Owen and Jamie Ringer - and that’s their line-out alone. Most games are based on possession and it’s going to be at a premium on Saturday.”
If tomorrow’s game is half as good as the meeting of the sides in 2001 when Munster hit back from a big deficit to win a thriller by 39-24 with outstanding contributions from O’Gara and Mike Mullins, then most should be perfectly happy.
However, Kidney played down its significance last night.
“You never recreate something, it’s just a historical thing to look back on and hopefully when I retire I’ll try to find the video but now we’re more concerned about the future,” he said.
“I think their position in the table does not do justice to their strengths. They were within range of Castres at the finish away from home and got a bonus point, I think they knocked on two or three times over the line.
“They had to play Sale six days later and Sale went three tries up in the first 20 minutes but the Dragons came back at them because they’re very proud on and off the pitch.
“Sale managed to get into them when they were tiring at the end and so caught them cold at the start and tired at the finish.”
Inevitably, the decision not to kick for goal on at least five occasions against Ulster last Saturday was raised.
Kidney said after the game that they would look at the situation and that has happened.
However, he wasn’t saying publicly how they would address similar situations tomorrow.
“We could have had a defeat with four tries against us or a win with four tries for us. Some decisions are more major than others. I’m not going to say what went on internally but we’ve taken a look at it and hopefully have learnt certain things from it. The exact situation never arises twice running. We had seven penalties within kicking range and didn’t take one. That probably wouldn’t happen again.”
Elaborating on a subject central to much comment all week, Kidney said that “against Castres we had a penalty early on and went for touch and we got a try from 20 yards out”.
“We managed to roll over so there was no problem with kicking to touch on that occasion.
“It’s a case of holding your nerve and not being so dog-headed as to keep doing it to prove everybody wrong. It’s a game of decisions, you have to make split-second decisions and live it. Have we made the right decision every time this year? Not at all, but we know that.
“In terms of the decision the last day, I’m not going to say whether I thought it was right or not but I will back the players because it’s important we leave the game in the control of the players. But we always look at every situation.”
: M. Lawler; J. Kelly, G. Connolly, T. Halstead, A. Horgan; R. O’Gara, P. Stringer; M. Horan, J. Flannery, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll, D. Leamy, D. Wallace, A. Foley (capt).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
