Gaffney fears Munster injury jinx

MUNSTER coach Alan Gaffney feels last year’s Leinster injury jinx may have followed him south.

The former Lions boss managed a wry smile at the suggestion, but added ruefully: “At this stage, it’s not really funny.”

Rob Henderson is the latest high-profile casualty after sustaining a serious injury in Gloucester on Saturday and the Munster squad will be down to the bare bones for the visit of Perpignan to Thomond Park next weekend.

Gaffney has just 23 of the 30 players nominated for his Heineken Cup squad available. In his words: “If you’re fit, and play in the forwards, you’re in.”

The only selection dilemma is to choose a back-up scrum-half for Peter Stringer, either Mike Prendergast or Dom Malone.

Gone from the equation are Paul O’Connell, Donnacha O’Callaghan, Henderson, Anthony Horgan, John O’Neill, Colm McMahon and Martin Cahill.

Gaffney has four further front-row options but, unfortunately, that’s not where the cover is needed. Henderson faces an operation after tearing a muscle/tendon in his bicep as Munster crashed to the English league leaders.

He goes into hospital tomorrow and faces a lay-off of up to six weeks.

The Irish international and 2001 Lions star has had a horrible time of it in recent months.

Gaffney concluded: “It has not been a good time for him and he is obviously gutted.

“But these things happen in a player’s career. They have to put up with it and get on with things. Rob was distraught after sustaining the injury because he knew he hasn’t had a chance to get a run of games under his belt. Knowing him, however, he will recover quickly and get over the disillusionment he feels at the moment.”

Gaffney is no stranger to having to work around injury. As assistant to Matt Williams, Gaffney saw several of the Leinster players struck down by various ailments last season at crucial times.

While Leinster hit the right note by beating Munster in the Celtic League final, they lost out in the Heineken Cup quarter-final to Leicester.

Nathan Spooner and Shane Horgan were two high-profile casualties in that game and the eventual champions

finally secured a comprehensive victory over Leinster.

“It looks like this plague is following me although I can’t complain overall because we have a pretty strong squad,” Gaffney said.

“The good thing is that we can call on Jason Holland. He has been around a bit and has never let the side down. He was always in contention for a place anyway.”

Munster had previously lost David Wallace prior to the cut-off date for naming the Heineken Cup squad. “We are now hoping that Simon Kerr, who suffered a hamstring injury in the warm-up before the Gloucester game, will be okay.” Leinster, away to Swansea on Saturday evening, could have the best of both worlds.

Having beaten Bristol at Donnybrook, the Leinster management will have an opportunity to see first-hand how well Bristol play at home in the Memorial Stadium, while watching next-up opponents, Montferrand.

Bristol play the French side early in the afternoon, while Leinster meet Swansea at St Helens five hours later. Leinster will be favourites to add to that Donnybrook success. Swansea have had more than a share of problems this season and were hammered when they travelled to France last week. However, Aussie coach Matt Williams is not complacent.

“There are areas of our game that we must improve upon. It was important to get the win over Bristol but there is room to move on a bit,” Williams said.

“We are still feeling our way, but hopefully the extra week together will give us more time to iron out some problems we have identified,” he said.