Halstead set to miss Heineken Cup clash with Bourgoin

TREVOR Halstead will miss Munster’s Heineken Cup clash against Bourgoin in Geneva on Sunday.

The centre aggravated a calf muscle strain in Friday night’s Magners League defeat to the Newport Gwent Dragons. However team medics are hopeful that he can return for Munster’s final Pool Four game against Leicester Tigers on January 20th at Thomond Park.

Back row, John O’Sullivan, is also out of contention with strained medial ligaments which will sideline him for six weeks.

Another casualty from Friday night’s trip to Wales, Jeremy Manning, was diagnosed with soft tissue shoulder damage yesterday. Manning along with Denis Leamy (flu), Barry Murphy (stomach bug) and Jerry Flannery are all expected to be included in Declan Kidney’s squad for the trip to Switzerland.

Meanwhile Kidney will celebrate his 60th game as a Heineken Cup coach on Sunday. It will be his 53rd game with Munster.

He also spent one season at Leinster, after a brief flirtation with the Dragons, and steered them into the quarter-finals. In all, he has only missed the knock-out phase of the Heineken Cup as a coach in one season out of seven prior to this campaign.

He has taken Munster to three finals, his record in the tournament has only been bettered in terms of number of games by two coaches — Guy Noves of Toulouse (84) and Gareth Jenkins of the Scarlets (67).

Ronan O’Gara — the Heineken Cup leading points scorer — is just two successful kicks away from cracking the 300 barrier. The Munster marksman has landed 298 goals in his 63 tournament appearances and is poised to break more new ground. His haul of 815 points is made up of: penalties (516 points), conversions (228), drop goals (36) and tries (35).