Kelly cleared to face Llanelli
Munster, with little or no access to their top players for this competition over the last couple of months, are struggling. Kelly is the only one of ten players released from the national squad this week.
But if results haven’t been great, there is hope that things can get better. Certainly, Munster captain Paul O’Connell, who is on international duty for the next month, hopes his side can kick-start the campaign in his absence.
Yesterday, he pointed out that the “blooding” of a number of players earlier in the campaign, allied to the participation of some new exciting talent, could help do just that.
Munster should benefit from the recent strong displays by Shaun Payne and Trevor Halstead, the return after injury of Jeremy Manning and the arrival on the scene of Lifiemi Mafi, who made a sensational start to his Munster career in the latter stages of the Heineken Cup win over Bourgoin.
Leinster will today name their team to face Newport Gwent Dragons at Donnybrook tomorrow.
Meanwhile, at Lansdowne Road, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O’Donoghue TD announced details of the investment of 3.5 million by the Irish Sports Council in the Irish Rugby Football Union for 2006. The investment is in programmes aimed at increasing participation in rugby throughout Ireland at all levels and for all sectors of society.
One of the programmes that will benefit from this investment will be the IRFU Long Term Player Development Model (LTPD) which, for the first time, will provide an integrated framework to facilitate the development of rugby players at all levels of participation and experience.
The LTPD framework outlines six stages of development, namely; the FUNdamental stage, the Learn to Play & Practice stage, the Train to Train stage, the Train to Compete stage, the Train to Win stage and the final Retirement/Retention stage.
The LTPD model is designed to ensure that the experience of training and playing the game is appropriate for the development stage of the player involved. It is player-centred, in that the specific characteristics at each stage are based on the particular capacities of players at each stage of development.
The LTPD is not intended to be a production line of world-class players, but rather an integrated series of stages to maximise the potential of all players according to their own ability and ambition.
Ultimately the successful establishment and maintenance of a long term programme of development will be essential to that small number of players with the talent and aspiration to become elite performers.
IRFU President Peter Boyle said: “This investment by the Irish Sports Council is an integral part of our ongoing plans for increasing both participation numbers and the quality experience of rugby for all participants as set out in the IRFU’s Strategic Plan.”
In the meantime, Leinster Rugby have announced details of The Last Stand.
Discount tickets starting at 5 for the final match to be played in Lansdowne Road, against Ulster in the Magners League on December 31 (ko 2pm), are on sale now.
To mark the historic event, several thousand tickets East/West Upper (reserved) and East Lower (unreserved) are on sale now for 5 (plus a 2 surcharge for online bookings).
Interest has been huge already and all signs would indicate that the Magners League record attendance of over 27,000 achieved last month against Munster will be eclipsed.
Tickets can be booked online at www.leinsterrugby.ie or on www.ticketmaster.ie.
The ticket price will increase in the coming days so people are advised to book early.
Munster squad (v Llanelli): D Hurley, F Pucciariello, T Ryan, T Buckley, A Kyriacou, S Cronin, D Ryan, C Wyatt, M O’Driscoll (capt), A Quinlan, T McGann, J O’Sullivan, J Coughlan, G Hurley, T O’Leary, J Manning, E Hickey, T Halstead, L Mafi, B Murphy, J Kelly, I Dowling, M Lawlor, S Payne.
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