Meeuws blow for Castres

MUNSTER have had some good news in advance of their Heineken Cup clash with Castres on Friday as Kees Meeuws cannot fulfil a promise to lead the French side to victory.

Meeuws warned Munster after their win in Thomond Park earlier this season that he and Castres would be back to do damage in the second leg.

But the New Zealand prop has lost his battle to recover from an ankle injury and a club spokesman confirmed yesterday that he was out of the side.

“We have not decided on a replacement yet, but it would be a miracle if Kees was able to play.”

Castres, who hammered Montpellier over the weekend, are also sweating on the fitness of out half Yann Delaigue, who has a neck problem.

Mathiew Barrau could be back in the team however. The scrum half has been serving a month long suspension but that sentence terminated at the weekend, making him eligible for this big tie.

Meanwhile, David Humphreys could do a 500 points double in the space of a week. The outside half is just one point short of 500 Heineken Cup points for Ulster and becoming only the fifth player to earn an ERC Elite 500 Club award. And last weekend he took over as the leading Celtic League scorer when he contributed all 25 of Ulster’s points in their 25-23 win over Glasgow Warriors to take him to 522 points in the Celtic competition, edging him ahead of Gavin Henson of the Ospreys.

But in European terms, Humphreys is still way behind Munster’s Ronan O’Gara, who is the highest scorer in the history of the tournament.

Indeed O’Gara needs just three points this week to push him to 700 points.