Munster likely to be at full-strength for crunch tie

MUNSTER’S worst fears may not, after all, be realised and the chances are that they will be able to select the side to meet Gloucester at Thomond Park on Saturday from the 24 players available to them for last week’s Heineken Cup game in Perpignan.

Coach Alan Gaffney spent much of yesterday watching the horror movie that was the video of the Perpignan game and also hearing reports from physio Kirsty Peacock on the state of health of the many walking wounded.

Mick O'Driscoll was on crutches on Saturday night but his damaged toe may not rule him out of the Gloucester game. Likewise, Jeremy Staunton's knee was considerably better yesterday and Ronan O'Gara looked a good bet to have recovered from a bruised chest in time for the match that offers Munster the slimmest of hopes of reaching the quarter-finals for the fifth successive year.

On the debit side, Anthony Horgan has virtually no chance of lining out on Saturday and there won't be a clearer picture on the immediate futures of Rob Henderson and David Wallace until they have seen a specialist next Monday. It will be mid-February at the earliest before Dominic Crotty, John O'Neill, Paul O'Connell and Simon Kerr can be considered.

Gaffney doesn't intend to put the players through the mill just because they underperformed in Perpignan.

"That would be the wrong way to go about it", he said last night. "We get together in Limerick on Tuesday and will have a bit of fun as we build up for the week-end. The players will do gym work on Wednesday when, however, we will announce the team and then we will have a full session in Cork on Thursday. The first thing for us to do against Gloucester is to ensure our process is right. There will be no Barbarians rugby. We can't put tries in front of the process but if we get that right, then the tries will follow. The critical thing is to win and who knows what will happen if we get a try here and a try there".

Meanwhile, Ireland may pull out of World Cup warm-up tests in Samoa and Tonga in June because the IRFU refuses to pay any of the costs.

Under IRB regulations the host nation has to pick up the costs and the Irish are refusing to help out the cash-strapped Pacific islanders. Ireland were anyway reportedly keen to give their players more of a rest ahead of the World Cup, although the Irish were still due to play Australia in Perth on June 7.

"We've had contact from the Tongans and the Samoans regarding the trip, and we've responded saying that we expect to travel under IRB regulations which means that they pick up the expenses incurred once the tour is underway," IRFU chief executive Philip Browne said.

Ireland end their Six Nations campaign at home to England on March 30 and play World Cup warm-ups against Italy at home on Aug 30 and Scotland at Murrayfield on Sept 6.

World Cup Pool A opponents are Australia, Argentina, Romania and Namibia. Ireland open their World Cup against Romania on October 11.