Munster game for Costello as curtain comes down on career

RETIREMENT doesn’t hold any great fears for Victor Costello. It’s the manner of his going, not the fact he’ll soon be gone, that is his chief concern.

When Leinster bowed out so meekly to Leicester in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup he could have been forgiven for thinking that the rest of his final season would be spent with a Leinster team on autopilot, feet up on the dashboard. Instead, he faces one last crack at Munster in tomorrow's Celtic Cup semi-final at Lansdowne Road. Win or lose, it's quite a way to bring the curtain down on a 10-year provincial career.

"I am glad it's Munster, yeah. Apart from being the old enemy, there are a bunch of friends of mine on that team, guys I've played for Ireland with. You could play out the season by playing against a couple of Welsh or anonymous teams so I'm glad it's Munster now."