Kidney puts faith in Munster young guns
The two Munster youngsters have been elevated to front-line duty because of injuries to colleagues, but neither should be intimidated by the prospect on the basis of recent performances in the red jersey.
Murphy comes in at outside centre after Trevor Halstead, the South African international, failed a fitness test. So far, he has been used by Kidney as a full back, winger and centre.
Kidney remarked last night: “Barry’s attitude is top class and his ability on the pitch is proven. I have no doubt he can make a big impact on the game.”
O’Leary is another Heineken Cup debutant and is in the side on foot of an injury to Peter Stringer, whom Kidney has named on the bench after the diminutive scrum half made a remarkable recovery in the last week.
“Peter has made huge progress and was obviously fit to play. But I felt it might just have been a little too early to put him in from the start. Anyway, Tomas played very well in his last couple of games and I’m also confident that he will do well.”
Stringer is one of seven reserves, though Paul Burke did not travel after his wife Hilary gave birth earlier this week. As a result, Jeremy Manning joins the bench.
Sale are the wannabes of Heineken Cup rugby, but they have performed well at secondary levels, twice winning the European Challenge Cup.
With six Lions and the confidence that comes with heading the Guinness Premiership, Munster have it all to do.
Sale No 8 Sebastian Chabal, a man who one would always want to be on your side, believes it is possible for Sale to go all the way this season.
“I think we have a very good side, a blend of experience in the forwards and flair in the backs. It is about being powerful up front and trying to best use good back players. I am happy to have made the move here, and excited about the possibilities; good players, nice guys, happy atmosphere.”
But is English rugby all it’s cracked up to be? All will be revealed tonight when Munster will discover whether secondary competition success and early season leadership of the Premiership stands up to the hard edge of experience.
Said Chabal: “We will only know where we stand after the game, but I think we’re good enough to beat a very good side. If we can beat Wasps, then I’m fairly confident we can beat Munster too.”
Sale captain Jason Robinson added: “Munster are favourites to win this pool, but we have aspirations to win it. The season has gone well for us so far; we’re taking on and beating the best of the English teams and we have no doubt about our capabilities.
“The last few seasons were frustrating in ways. We had a good team but we lacked strength in depth when we had injury problems. I think we’ve got that sorted out now, most of the guys are flying fit and we have options from the bench that we didn’t have before.
“I’m fairly confident that we can make an impact; the important thing now is to make sure that we start this campaign with a win at home. We need to win all our games at Edgeley Road and take a couple of victories out on the road as well.”
SALE (v Munster): D. Larrechea, M. Cueto, M. Taylor, E. Sevealai’I, J. Robinson, C. Hodgson, S. Martens; A. Sheridan, A. Titterrell, S. Turner, C. Jones, I. Fernandez-Lobbe, J. White, M. Lund, S. Chabal.
Replacements: S. Bruno, B. Stewart, B. Coutts, C. Day, N. Bonner Evans, D. Schofield, V. Courrent, R. Todd, S. Hanley, O. Ripol.
MUNSTER (v Sale): S. Payne, J. Kelly, B Murphy, G Connolly, A Pitout, R O’Gara, T O’Leary; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll; A Quinlan, D Leamy, A Foley capt.
Replacements: J Flannery, F Pucciarello, T Hogan, D Wallace, P Stringer, J Manning, R Henderson.
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