Foley free to lead Munster challenge

TRIUMPHANT Heineken Cup captain Anthony Foley appears to have been freed up to resume his leadership of Munster for the foreseeable future.

Foley has been excluded from a 34-man Irish squad for a mini-training camp in Dublin next week and has already re-joined the province in advance of this weekend’s Magners League games.

He is one of four Munster players released by Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan and the only one of that group not to be included in the Irish squad for next week.

While there are some notable absentees due to injury and rehabilitation, there are also some new faces in the squad, with Ireland A front row forwards John Fogarty and Tom Court making the camp after featuring in the Churchill Cup during the summer.

The other Churchill Cup squad members joining the camp are Paddy Wallace, Jamie Heaslip and Matt McCullough, who have already been part of previous Ireland squads.

O’Sullivan also welcomes back some experienced players who missed the summer tour due to injury, with Simon Easterby, Frankie Sheahan, Eoin Reddan and John Kelly all returning to the squad.

Meanwhile, Munster hope to exact revenge on Glasgow Warriors by introducing more experience to their Magners League squad for Friday’s clash (7.30pm Setanta Scotland) at Hughenden.

Munster, smarting from two defeats in last season’s campaign, have been boosted by the availability of Anthony Foley, Alan Quinlan, Mick O’Driscoll, Anthony Horgan, Christian Cullen and Ian Dowling after a mixed start to the campaign when they utilised a number of youngsters who provided quality but little experience.

The Connacht squad to play Llanelli Scarlets at the Sportsground on Friday (6.30pm) shows one change from the team that defeated the Ospreys 15-10 last weekend to give the Irish side a perfect start to their campaign.

Darren Yapp has been ruled out with a thigh injury and his place has been taken by John Hearty.

Hooker Rory Best will be one of three Ireland internationals to return to action for Ulster when they make the trip to Murrayfield for Friday’s game against Edinburgh (7.30pm).

The 24-year-old takes over the leadership from the injured Justin Harrison and replaces Paul Shields in the front row.

Also returning are Isaac Boss and Bryan Young, who take over from Kieran Campbell and Tom Court respectively. Matt McCullough fills the vacancy at lock and gets his first start since a near-death car accident in Canada during the summer.

The only real change of note by coach Mark McCall is the inclusion of Kieron Dawson at openside in place of Neil McMillan.

Leinster take on Cardiff Blues at Donnybrook on Saturday night (7.30pm) in a match that will be shown live on Setanta (Ireland). The Leinster squad will be announced today.