Munster play Connacht in Celtic quarter-final

MUNSTER and Connacht will meet in the quarter-finals of the Celtic League in a month's time, most likely at Musgrave Park on Friday, November 29.

Alan Gaffney's side take on Viadana of Italy at the same venue a week later in the Heineken Cup so the game could hardly come at a better time.

The full quarter-final draw is: Pontypridd v Neath; Munster v Connacht; Glasgow v Ulster and Edinburgh v Cardiff.

Should they come through the quarter-finals, group leaders Pontypridd and Munster will be favoured with a semi-final at a "neutral" venue in their own country.

Coach Alan Gaffney won't get much of a chance to work on some of the disappointing aspects of their weekend destruction of Welsh strugglers Caerphilly, with the international players on contract duty. One man, however, who will attend every session is the ageless Mick Galwey. No longer required by Ireland, the 36-year-old Kerryman remains very much a part of the Munster scheme of things and, indeed, is giving Gaffney just the kind of headaches that every coach is more than happy to deal with.

Donnacha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell will both be returning after injury in the next couple of weeks but neither they nor Mick O'Driscoll can afford to take anything for granted with Galwey in such terrific form. He suffered a little in company with all his Munster teammates in the Heineken Cup opener at Gloucester but had a fine game against Perpignan a week later and romped over for a trademark try against Caerphilly in the course of another outstanding display.

"He's getting a lot of touches on the ball and it's absolutely sensational the way he's playing", Gaffney agreed. "I watched the game with Jim Williams and we stood and marvelled at the way he was running around like a two-year-old".