Sheahan to miss game against Bourgoin

FRANKIE SHEAHAN is out of the Munster team to face Bourgoin in the final match in Pool 5 of the Heineken Cup at Thomond Park on Saturday.

But Marcus Horan took a full part in yesterday’s two sessions at Thomond Park and is fully fit to resume at loose head prop in a game from which Munster almost certainly need a bonus point to ensure a home quarter-final.

There are still slight doubts concerning full-back Shaun Payne and flankers David Wallace and Jim Williams, all three of whom picked up injuries at Treviso last week, but coach Alan Gaffney has no doubt that they will be in the shake-up when he announces his side tomorrow.

“Frankie is seeing the doctor on Thursday and his chances of playing are very, very slim,” admitted Gaffney. “We think it’s a bit of small bone floating in the knee. It’s nothing serious. He’s had all the scans and nothing has shown up. We hope he’ll be training again by the end of next week. It locks on him now and again and it’s just a little uncomfortable.”

Eddie O’Sullivan announces his 32-man Ireland Six Nations squad today and the first match, against France in Paris on February 14, is little more than a fortnight away. His loss to Munster is also quite considerable for he has been playing some great rugby of late and was deservedly chosen as man of the match in the return game against Gloucester.

James Blaney, his replacement at Treviso, experienced some difficulty in finding his jumpers. Gaffney and his assistant Brian Hickey will be doing a lot of work in this area over the next few days.

“All the indications are that Shaun Payne will be fully fit to train on Thursday,” said Gaffney. “David Wallace has a bit of a dead leg. He trained this morning, didn’t take part in the afternoon, but that was more of a precautionary measure as we were doing some contact. He’s okay. Jim Williams took a bit of a knock late in the Treviso game and stayed out this afternoon for much the same reason as Wally.”

With Bourgoin definitely out of the running for a quarter-final spot and building up for a crunch home French Championship game a week later against Colomiers, there is understandable speculation as to where their priorities lie. Their only way back into Europe is through a good finish in the domestic league but the Munster camp will take nothing for granted and suspect that they may come out with all guns firing to try and make an impression on coach Laurent Seigne, who has taken over from Philippe Saint-Andre, the former French winger fired at the week-end.

“I really believe they will put out their top team,” Gaffney declared. “Okay, so they’ve got rid of Saint-Andre but is that a situation in which they will play all out for their new coach? I don’t know. This guy will want to make a point. He may think, this is my first game as coach of this side, and we’re going to do a big job. I think their priorities will be with the game a week later but I can’t imagine any side coming over and not wanting to play.”

He added: “I wasn’t happy with the performance at Treviso because we weren’t precise enough in what we did. We’ve been through the video and I think that session we’ve just had was one of the best. The news on Christian Cullen is that he will see the specialist in the first week of February, should be available for contact work immediately after that and, all going well, be available for the Celtic League tie against Llanelli at Stradey Park on Feb 20.”