Scots’ prop McIlwham joins Gaffney’s squad

MUNSTER have signed Scottish international prop Gordon McIlwham. The 33-year-old former Glasgow and Begles Bordeaux prop will join Alan Gaffney’s squad at the conclusion of Scotland’s World Cup campaign, until the end of the current season.

Munster had originally agreed terms with former Auckland prop Mike Storey but the New Zealander suffered an injury playing with Northland in a pre-NPC warm-up game that will rule him out for most of the season, thus leaving the Munster management with a vacancy in the front row.

McIlwham who played with Bordeaux last season made his international debut against Fiji in May 1998 and won his 15th cap against Ireland in Murrayfield earlier this month.

Ulster’s young and abrasive flanker, Neil McMillan, could be sidelined for four weeks with a cruciate knee ligament injury sustained in training.

McMillan will definitely miss Friday night’s Celtic League tie against Gwent Dragons at Ravenhill and the Celtic Cup quarter-final tie against Leinster at the same venue the following week.

Skipper Andy Ward moves across to the openside of the scrum to cater for the absence of the 24-year-old McMillan against the new Welsh combination.

Meanwhile, the IRB should investigate why smaller rugby nations are fighting losing battles to attract players away from their clubs for the World Cup, Australia’s top rugby union official insisted yesterday.

Australian Rugby Union (ARU) chief executive John O’Neill said the difficulties countries like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Namibia faced in assembling competitive squads for next month’s 20-nation tournament were puzzling.

“It’s very puzzling and We find it inexplicable that they [players] would choose to play club rugby instead of for their national team,” O’Neill claimed.

“I haven’t seen absolutely unambiguous evidence but I have heard what some of the national coaches of some of these smaller unions have said and, if it’s true, it’s pretty alarming.

“Clearly we want every team, including Namibia, to put their best team on the paddock. That is a requirement of the IRB so we are looking to the IRB to actually investigate those claims and see if they can fix the problem.”

Romania prop Dan Tudosa and flanker Costica Mersoiu will miss the World Cup because of injury.

ULSTER: B. Cunningham; S. Young; R. Constable, S. Stewart, T. Howe; A. Larkin, K. Campbell; R. McCormack, M. Sexton, B. Young, M. Mustchin, R. Frost, T. McWhirter, A. Ward, capt, R. Wilson.

Replacements: P. Shields, S. Shawe, M. McCullough, N. Best, R. Spee, S. Mallon, J. Topping.