Seconds out…round three

IT isn’t just wishful thinking that leads me to believe that Alan Gaffney and Munster can fly out of England’s west country tonight with a major scalp in the cargo hold.

It may be fanciful to suggest that the men in red will succeed at Kingsholm, where so many themselves included have so palpably failed over the years.

But this is a Munster team of vast experience, one that likes nothing better than going into the lion's den and emerging with a fairytale result. Just ask Leicester, Stade Francais, Toulouse, Bourgoin and Castres to mention but a few who believed they were impregnable on home territory only to find out different.

Nobody in the Munster camp overlooks the fact that they came here last year and failed to perform in front of the passionate cherry and white supporters and at the end were fortunate to escape with a 35-16 thrashing.

But that was then and this is now and with so many different agendas at play for this fixture, it can be safely assumed that Munster will be geared up like never before.

It certainly doesn't harm Munster's cause that two Gloucester key men, England World Cup star Phil Vickery and first choice hooker Chris Fortey, will miss the game through injury and suspension respectively.

Fascinatingly, Vickery is replaced by Andy Deacon, a 6'5" giant now five months into his 39th year. And then there's Chris Collins, a 25-year-old European rookie and a man with only two Premiership games behind him.

Even more significant than his scrummaging prowess will be Collins' ability to find his jumpers Alex Brown and Mark Cornwell at the line-outs. They have had a mere 160 minutes game time together in matches that contained little of the fierce pressure associated with today's encounter.

"It will be the biggest game I have ever played in,", Collins acknowledged. "This is a different level and there is obviously a lot of pressure.

" I have been trying to carry on with life as normally as possible. Our coach, Dean Ryan, demands that you are up to speed on everything.

"He has helped to familiarise me with the workings of the set pieces and I will have a lot of experience around me. I have been desperate to get any sort of chance and I want to grab it with both hands."

What's certain is that the two Munster second-rows, Paul O'Connell and Donnacha O'Callaghan, will also be intent on getting their two hands on a lot of Collins's throws and in their ability to do just that could well depend the outcome.

That said, Gloucester have a decidedly useful line-out of their own with Alex Brown locally regarded as one of the most underrated second-rows in England. He's a tough customer as befits a man who learned the trade at Pontypridd where he describes the rugby as "pretty evil stuff, quite nasty but very educational."

He subsequently joined Bristol where he came under the influence of Dean Ryan before making the short move up the M5 to Kingsholm.

"Coming here as an opponent was very scary, I dreaded the times we had to play here but now I love it," he said.

"I've never met a crowd like it in the Premiership or anywhere else."

The crowd of more than 11,500, packed together in the famous Shed, will certainly be a factor, but Munster have been through this before, and they know what to expect.

Then there's the Ronan O'Gara/ Duncan McRae duel at out-half and all that entails. O'Gara insists he won't allow their bit of 'previous' to affect his game, with McRae agreeing: "I must keep my head screwed on."

No matter how strong the feeling in the Munster camp about what happened in Sydney in 2001, they must heed Gaffney's warning not to allow it to influence their approach.

Why shouldn't the Munster pack, each and every one of them seasoned international campaigners, gain a decisive edge over a Gloucester eight short two key front-row players.

You would expect Marcus Horan, Frankie Sheahan and John Hayes to gain the ascendancy in that area, for O'Connell and O'Callaghan to do likewise in the second-row, and David Wallace, Jim Williams and Anthony Foley to at least hold their own against Peter Buxton, Jake Boer and Junior Paramore, top class though they are.

Furthermore, I'll be surprised if O'Gara doesn't show up McRae in the most important way of all by proving a far more effective No 10.

The scrum-half battle between Peter Stringer and Andy Gomarsall should prove a delightful little cameo in itself while yesterday's recall of Samoan Terry Fanolua in the centre in preference to Robert Todd hasn't aroused much interest in the Munster camp. "We have a good handle on the guy," said Gaffney last night.

Rob Henderson needs a big game to force himself into the national limelight and could hardly have a better stage on which to make a point, while the confident expectation is that John Kelly and Anthony Horgan will cope with whatever James Simpson-Daniel and Marcel Garvey throw at them.

Of course, neither coach can be entirely happy with the full-back situation. Munster are going with the unproven Shaun Payne, Gloucester are forced to play another rookie, Jon Goodridge, because of injury to Thinus Delport. It won't be easy for either.

Man for man, Munster shouldn't fear Gloucester. And if they succeed in eliminating the Kingsholm factor, then prepare yourself for another great day for the men in red.