Payne relief for Munster ahead of crunch Cup clashes
Payne has been invaluable to coach Declan Kidney due to the long-term injury to Christian Cullen, but hasn’t played since the win over Castres due to an attack of pneumonia which resulted in a considerable loss of weight.
Jeremy Manning and Mossie Lawler stood in for Payne in Munster’s most recent games and did reasonably well.
However, a fully-fit Payne would be a huge boost to Munster’s prospects of repeating last week’s win over the Dragons and, almost as importantly, picking up a bonus point.
That bonus point is beginning to grate a little with Kidney as his side has been criticised for overdoing the search for a bonus in the Celtic League defeat by Ulster and not doing enough to pick one up against the Dragons.
“Winning our last three games would obviously give us 21 points and history has shown that would qualify for the quarter-finals,” he reasoned.
“You can get caught up in bonus points. The important thing is to try to win games first.
“Historically, there’s only a 50% ratio of winning back-to-back fixtures. After Saturday, we have Castres in France and then Sale, who are probably the favourites for the European Cup, so it would be some achievement to win the three games, let alone talk about bonus points.
“We have too much respect for the opposition for that kind of thing.”
The management and players can debate the rights and wrongs of the bonus point issue but the decision ultimately rests with captain Anthony Foley, who remains unrepentant about the strategy employed in the recent matches.
“If we go back to the Ulster game, we had an opportunity to kick for goal with four minutes to go and decided we’d go for the win. We back ourselves in those calls and it nearly came off.
“Last weekend, we got our second try and obviously our thoughts were of getting a third, then all bets were on to get a fourth. But credit to the Dragons, we didn’t see the ball for the next 10 minutes so it became very hard to get that third try,” he said.
The continued absence of key players like Paul O’Connell and Christian Cullen is regarded by Kidney as “par for the course”.
All of last week’s squad are fit and they are joined by Payne and prop forward Federico Pucciariello, while Rob Henderson is also included in the 27-strong squad.
The coach revealed that Payne had “done two sessions and so is probably closer than Federico”.
“He is about 50/50. Shaun had pneumonia. It wasn’t something that showed up and he had to have an X-ray before it could be fully diagnosed. He has lost a bit of weight, while Federico twinged a hamstring.”
The news that O’Connell is close to a return is very welcome, although the form of Mick O’Driscoll will leave Kidney with a selection headache.
Kidney has wanted to give Trevor Hogan more field time and added: “The competition for places brings us out the very best in players. Without competition, it’s only human nature you’re going to slacken off and not push yourself.
“The boys will be making statements and saying, we know Paul is coming back, and if you ask him, Paul will be assuming nothing. It’s the kind of situation we have always tried to create in Munster.”
: Forwards (13): J. Hayes, M. Horan, F. Roche, F. Pucciariello, J. Flannery, D. Fogarty, D. O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll, T. Hogan, D. Leamy, D. Wallace, A. Foley, S. Keogh.
: M. Lawler, S. Payne, A. Horgan, B. Murphy, G. Connolly, T. Halstead, A. Pitout, J. Kelly, A. Horgan, J. Manning, R. O’Gara, T. O’Leary, P. Stringer, R. Henderson.
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