O’Connell set to line out against Biarritz despite ban

IRELAND and Munster second row forward Paul O’Connell will be available for the Heineken Cup quarter-final joust with Biarritz — despite being suspended for two weeks.

O'Connell and his Munster colleagues will now be glad that the match was scheduled for Sunday; if Munster's match was fixed for April 2 he would not have been available, as the suspension runs from Saturday March 19 until Saturday, April 2.

Yesterday O'Connell said: "I am relieved, delighted. It was a fair hearing and I'm looking forward to putting this behind me and helping Munster go through to the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup."