Owens to referee Munster showdown with Gloucester
Owens has officiated at two of Munster’s Heineken Cup pool games this season: Munster v Clermont Auvergne (round 2) and Munster v Wasps (round 6), and he has been given many of the glamour fixtures in the tournament this season, including Leicester v Toulouse (round 3) and Saracens v Biarritz (round 5). He also handled the Six Nations match between France and Ireland in Paris last month.
Ireland’s Alain Rolland will handle the Exiles’ quarter final against Perpignan on the same day as Munster’s game, while Alan Lewis will referee the Saracens/Ospreys quarter final. England’s Wayne Barnes will officiate the Toulouse-Cardiff clash.
Meanwhile, although they are included in a 26-strong squad for tomorrow evening’s (7.30) Magners League game against Ulster at Musgrave Park, it’s unlikely that Ireland regulars Ronan O’Gara, Marcus Horan, John Hayes and Donncha O’Callaghan will be in the starting line-up.
Denis Leamy and David Wallace, who suffered shoulder and leg injuries respectively in last week’s England-Ireland clash at Twickenham, are already out of the equation with the latter still on the doubtful list for the Heineken Cup quarter-final meeting with Gloucester.
The Ulster game should herald the return to full action of hooker Jerry Flannery for the first time since the Heineken Cup game against Wasps in January. He has been ruled out by suspension and injury and missed all of Ireland’s Six Nations games. Flannery had a run with the Munster A side last week and took a full part in yesterday’s final training session at Dooradoyle.
MUNSTER (squad): D Hurley, S Payne, B Carney, I Dowling, D Howlett, K Lewis, R Tipoki, L Mafi, P Warwick, R O’Gara, T O’Leary, P Stringer, M Horan, T Buckley, F Sheahan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, M O’Driscoll, D Ryan, A Quinlan, N Ronan, J Coughlan, J O’Sullivan, A Foley.
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