Munster to be fighting fit for Viadana return leg in Italy
Gaffney's two other main injury worries, John Kelly and Dominic Crotty, are both available to him and could well be part of his plans for the return game to the Italian side they crushed by 64 points last Friday night.
Kelly, who injured his knee in the recent international against Australian when he came on as a replacement for Denis Hickie, is reported to have been 'flying' in training this week and is in contention for a place on the team.
Crotty has recovered from a broken bone in his hand which he suffered in the AIL game between Garryowen and UCD and he too is once more available for selection.
Of the long terms injuries, David Wallace is reported to be well on schedule to return to the side in January.
Rob Henderson, in the meantime is in Poland for specialist rehabilitation treatment on an upper arm injury. He is utilising specialist equipment developed by the Poles for soft tissue injury treatment and he too is set for a New Year return, but expects it to be late January or early February before he is fully fit.
Gaffney will name the team today at lunchtime after a training session at Temple Hill in Cork.
In the meantime, Leinster, Gloucester, Toulouse and Bourgoin are the only teams left with 100% records at the halfway stage of the eighth season of the Heineken Cup and that adds up to them being in pole Pool positions to qualify for the quarter-finals in 2003.
Leinster top Pool 4 courtesy of their first win on French soil in seven attempts in the shape of a 23-20 victory at Montferrand, with captain Reggie Corrigan declaring: "We always targeted the away win with the aim to follow that up with a win on our home ground so we will be hoping to stick to our plans at Donnybrook on Friday night.
"We are obviously delighted to have won in France at last and that gives us a lot of satisfaction. We knew the match would be very physical and, if it was close at the end, we would have a chance. Luckily, we got the break we needed and scored that late try.
"All that changes now are a few tactical adjustments. Montferrand were very good at the line out so we will try and come up with some options there.
"It took the first half to get into our rhythm so, hopefully, we will find our pattern a lot quicker at Donnybrook. In theory it should be easier at home but you can't take it for granted. Even though French teams are not renowned for travelling well, we have to think they will be coming over to do a job."
Gloucester have yet to drop a point after making it three out of three with their 33-16 Pool 2 victory over Perpignan at Kinsgholm though they know the real test will come in France on Saturday in the return contest.
"Perpignan are a tough challenge up front, probably the biggest challenge we have faced all season in a scrummaging situation," said coach Dean Ryan.
"We need to pay respect to the quality of our opponents for our return visit. Only recently we saw them run all over Toulouse at home and it's the nature of Heineken Cup that every game is a top challenge.
"With the French clubs you face a lot of power at the set piece. That is one of the reasons it will be so important to have Andy Hazell back. We have a strong back row but have missed a link man, an out and out No.7, and Andy will be invaluable in Perpignan."
Elsewhere, Toulouse made it three out of three in Pool 5 in winning 30-9 at Edinburgh Rugby but the 1996 Heineken Cup champions are far from satisfied.
Toulouse's Irish international Trevor Brennan summed it all up with his "we played a terrible match probably the worst of our season. There is a huge amount of work to be done this week. We suffered at the hands of our coach Guy Noves on Monday morning in the video session. He was very angry he had every right to be and what he said was spot on. Our defence was terrible, our line out wasn't up to much and, in general, we played at about 60% of our capabilities.
"No one in the team is happy with our performance.
"We got the result but the way we got it is not what we were looking for. I think Sunday will be a totally different game."
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