Gaffney and Kidney search for new blood

DECLAN KIDNEY and Alan Gaffney will be busy over the next few days in an attempt to strengthen their squads prior to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals on the first weekend of April.

The dates for the four games were set yesterday, with Toulouse and Northampton at Stade Sept Deniers on Friday, April 1. The following day, Stade Francais will start as red-hot favourites against Newcastle Falcons at Stade Jean Bouin in Paris. That game kicks off at 3pm Irish time and will be followed at 5.15pm by Leinster and Leicester at Lansdowne Road.

The Biarritz-Munster game completes the schedule on Sunday at 4pm, though it will be some days before the French reveal the venue, with the Real Sociedad football ground in San Sebastian a strong candidate. It holds more than 30,000, whereas the Parc des Sports Aguilera in Biarritz has a capacity of 12,667.

In the meantime, both Irish survivors will be planning their next move. Kidney needs to beef up his Leinster pack after a series of insipid recent performances. Gaffney is concerned that the Munster back division has lacked punch in the last few matches, unable to overcome the absence of Ronan O’Gara.

Each European quarter-finalist is entitled to sign two new players over the next few weeks. The problem is finding available and eligible players, with Kidney pointing out that any new player would have to be European.

Drafting in players from the Southern Hemisphere would bring its own problems with each match 22 confined to two “foreigners.”

Another major consideration is finance. Kidney and Gaffney would have to run any ideas they might have on the subject past a sub-committee of the IRFU who pay the players’ wages and their support wouldn’t necessarily be forthcoming.

Whatever about Leinster, who have clinched a near full house at Lansdowne Road, the union might not be as sympathetic to Munster, whose failure to get a home quarter-final is believed to have cost the Irish game in excess of half-a-million euro.

The international players are already in camp as they prepare for the beginning of the Six Nations Championship opener against Italy in Rome on Sunday February 6.

They will, however, be “released” to the provinces for one training session towards the end of next week, prior to Leinster and Munster taking on the Newport Dragons at home and Llanelli Scarlets away in the Celtic League.

After that, they go back to national camp and won’t be seen in their respective provincial jerseys until the Celtic League ties of March 25-7.

With Ronan O’Gara and John Kelly likely to be fit by April Munster’s situation is scarcely as bleak as some would suggest.

A back line of Cullen, Payne, Kelly, Henderson, Horgan, O’Gara and Stringer isn’t bad, although doubts remain as to whether it would pack the kind of punch and pace to punch holes in the renowned Biarritz defence. The arrival of a top-class midfield back would be a huge bonus, though one can hardly be confident Gaffney’s search will bear any fruit.

There are those who contend that now is the time for Munster to try something radical in an effort to cure midfield ills. Because of the huge amount of backrow talent available, David Wallace has been allowed to kick his heels over the past month or so, unable to even make the bench.

However, he is not only a class footballer but also one of the fastest members of the Munster squad. Little or nothing would be lost in giving his 16stone 3lbs, 6ft 2in frame an extended run at outside centre in the upcoming Celtic League games.

No matter how far he has fallen down the pecking order, Wallace remains one of the most formidable ball carriers with an extraordinary capacity to break tackles.

That is just what the present crop of recognised Munster centres are failing to do. At the age of 28 Wallace should be at his prime and it seems odd in the extreme that he is currently languishing in the wilderness.

While most of the adverse comment has been directed at the Munster backs, the fact remains that the service from the forwards has been very slow.

Peter Stringer has had to dig the ball out of ruck after ruck. Nor have we seen much sign of the awesome maul that destroyed Castres at Thomond.

When it came to losing possession and being turned over, the forwards were just as good at it as the backs. It’s not just the much maligned three-quarters who need to get their act together in good time for the all-important visit to Biarritz.