Warriors boss Lineen primed for battle

SEAN LINEEN expects a headache long before the crowd raise their voices at tonight’s Magners League game at Thomond Park (KO: 7pm).

The Glasgow Warriors coach and ex Scottish international is doing his best to prepare the players for a brand new Munster experience, but he admits the prospect of beating the Heineken Cup champions will be difficult in front of a boisterous crowd of 23,000 anxious to celebrate the opening of the revamped stadium.

It could be made even tougher because the experienced Dan Parks has been ruled out with an injury sustained in the 34-20 victory over Llanelli. Colin Gregor replaces Parks and the one other change sees Andrew Henderson replace Graeme Morrison in the centre.

Munster have made five changes from the team that started against Leinster — Barry Murphy replacing Lifeimi Mafi, Anthony Horgan for Ian Dowling, Peter Stringer for the injured Tomas O’Leary, Frankie Sheahan for Jerry Flannery, while Alan Quinlan makes his first start instead of Donncha Ryan.

Lineen sees nothing in those changes to suggest they’ll weaken Munster.

“They have a real top quality squad and have continued to win games even with changes from match to match,” he said. Of far more interest to Lineen will be how his side react to playing in front of a big crowd on such an occasion.

“It’s always interesting to see how both sets of players and the referee react when the crowd get the noise levels up; it’s going to be a full house, it’s going to be unbelievably noisy, so we in particular have to make sure to be totally switched on.

“If Munster get some momentum they are very difficult to beat, they have quality players and they are very strong so we have to make sure we look after the ball, tackle hard and make sure we’re not intimidated.

“Contact is going to be a big area for us. They had a game against Leinster on Sunday that was a real gladiatorial battle and Munster finally wore them down in about the 74th minute. We’ve got to go right to the end and we’ve got to front up.”

Lineen is happy his replacements will be up to scratch if needed.

“Andrew (Henderson) is an international 12 and is champing at the bit to play, I’d be a fool not to rotate the squad and give the guy a chance.

“Graeme played very well against the Scarlets last week and now it’s up to Andy to show us what he’s got. What better place to do it — he’s played in front of big crowds before, so it’s a chance for him to make his mark on the game.”

“Dan could play if we were really desperate, but we have options we feel that allow us to leave him out. Colin Gregor’s done well against Munster in the past, he’s a skilled footballer and I like the way he plays. If he gets the support from the players around him, and he manages to make good decisions under real pressure then I think he could have a cracker.”

While there’s been huge public interest in the lead up to this game, given Munster’s return to the new Thomond Park, coach Tony McGahan doesn’t want his side to be distracted by the occasion: “It is going to be a marvellous occasion and it’s a great tribute to those involved in the construction to bring it to this stage so quickly.

“But at the end of the day for us it’s a Magners League game, there are points on offer and we really can’t let ourselves approach this game in a different frame of mind from any other game.”