Castres hit by injury worries
Munster coach Alan Gaffney said yesterday that Leamy has recovered from the damaged ear that kept him out of Friday's clash at Stade Pierre Antoin and was set to take part in the three all-out sessions planned for Limerick yesterday and today and in Cork tomorrow. John Hayes returned from France with his left wrist heavily bandaged but an x-ray revealed nothing more than bruising. That leaves John Kelly as the only player still sidelined by injury.
However, Castres coach Christope Orios has a number of problems as he prepares for a game that he hopes will culminate in a first Heineken Cup defeat for Munster at Thomond Park.
His outspoken hooker and captain, the Argentinian Mario Ledesma, was a late defection on Friday last because of a leg injury and he is struggling to regain full fitness.
The experienced Remi Vigneaux will continue as both skipper and hooker if Ledesma is again absent.
Former French out-half Yannick Delaigue also missed out on the first meeting between the sides while his replacement, Xavier Sadourny, departed before the final whistle. On top of that, flying New Zealand wing Brad Fleming and ex-Wasps centre Mark Denney were both replaced in the opening half hour.
Orios was able to bring in players of the calibre of Richard Dourthe, Benjamin Lhande and Jacques Deen to plug these gaps and they did so very effectively. Mauricio Reggiardo and Richard Froment, who have been capped respectively by Argentina and France, were introduced as tactical replacements so it is clear that Castres who made as many as ten close-season signings to bolster their squad boast genuine strength in depth.
In contrast to Castres, Munster made a whole series of unforced errors. The tackling, not only for David Bory's try but on several other occasions as well, was truly awful. Christian Cullen would certainly have been red-faced yesterday as Gaffney took his players through the video of the game. Cullen wasn't the only culprit by any means, but the manner in which he allowed Bory to virtually run through him for the game's decisive try was disappointing.
Following the Neath-Swansea Ospreys' uninspiring 24-7 win over Harlequins at St Helens on Sunday, the near certainty now is that Pool 4 will be a two-way contest between Munster and Castres. The French side currently have 11 points, Munster 9, Ospreys 5 and Quins 3. Munster will certainly be back in the driving seat should they beat Castres on Saturday, especially if they can do so by more than eight points and so prevent the French from picking up a bonus point. A bonus point of their own for scoring four tries would be extra sweet but before that can happen, Anthony Foley and his teammates have a lot of hard work and some soul searching to do.
"Obviously, all is not lost but performance wise, it wasn't there in the first game," admitted Jim Williams.
"There was a lot of rustiness but that's no excuse for the way we turned over ball at crucial times and missed far too many tackles, one ending up in their try while there wasn't enough composure when we got on top for a while in the second half. We have to rectify that, we must muscle up a lot more and find a big improvement."
Three tries from three matches is a poor return at this level we saw Leicester bag three in the first quarter of an hour on Sunday against the defending champions and the reality is that Munster will never capture the European Cup with that poor ratio.
It's easy to blame what is proving to be a rather pedestrian three-quarter line but there are also problems elsewhere. As a team, they haven't performed to the required standard.
Gaffney promises there will be three tough sessions early this week. However, he stressed that "they will not be long. More is not better. Our aim now has to be to win the three remaining matches and I can see no reason why we shouldn't do that. We will work at getting our confidence back and understand what we should have been doing. Clearly, Castres are mentally a very strong side. We will just have to be mentally stronger."
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