Tipoki set for return against Edinburgh
Tipoki has recovered from a knee injury sustained against Ulster in January and is included in a 26-man squad. All the indications are that he will be included in the starting line up that will also include Peter Stringer, Keith Earls, Denis Leamy, Alan Quinlan and Mick O’Driscoll, the five internationals released for the game by national coach Declan Kidney.
As Ireland travelled to Cork to begin preparations for the RBS Six Nations clash with England on Saturday week, the Munster squad return today from a week-long warm-weather camp in Lanzarote.
Edinburgh coach Andy Robinson has selected 23-year-old Ryan Grant for his first Magners League start in the number three jersey, and Grant is hoping to make an immediate impact.
Grant said: “I’m really pleased to be given the chance to start for Edinburgh and I want to make the most of the opportunity. After experiencing a few injury problems, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity and now I want to take it with both hands and help Edinburgh win. Playing against the Heineken Cup winners will be a tough test; I hope I’m up to it.”
After undergoing groin surgery in January, Grant returned to competitive action last Friday and scored a try in a recent win for Edinburgh’s back-up team over Leinster’s reserves in Dublin.
Winger Mark Robertson, who underwent a similar operation at the same time at Grant, comes back into the starting line-up after a month-long lay-off and Alan MacDonald (head injury) also returns to the team at open side.
The half-back partnership of scrum half Greig Laidlaw and stand-off David Blair, who scored 11 points during the team’s previous trip to Musgrave Park, continue in a back division containing internationals Ben Cairns, Nick De Luca and Chris Paterson.
Meanwhile, Andrew Turnbull is also looking forward to helping Edinburgh. Turnbull is one of the smallest backs in the Edinburgh side, but he relishes the prospect of knocking the Heineken Cup champions down.
Turnbull has only just swapped the summer sunshine of New Zealand for the biting cold of a northern European winter, helping Scotland win the Shield in the recent World Sevens tournament in Wellington.
The 26-year-old flier sharpened up his try-scoring skills overseas, but had to sit it out for much of the game when picked as a replacement for the Scotland A team heavily defeated by Ireland A last weekend.
Now he looks forward to a bigger slice of the action and he says the challenge doesn’t come much bigger than Munster. “I really enjoyed Wellington; there was plenty of good rugby and a fantastic atmosphere.”
“Unfortunately we did not do as well as we would have liked, but we managed to win the Shield. It was nice to have come away with something from the tournament because we did start playing some decent rugby at the end. It was just a shame we didn’t do it earlier,” he said.
Turnbull feels he is at the peak of his form, as he explained: “I feel a lot sharper from playing with Scotland 7’s. You get to play in great conditions, on hard pitches and it just means that now I’m raring to go again for Edinburgh.”
After representing one national team, Turnbull admits he was more than happy to pull on the navy blue jersey again; this time as a replacement for the ‘A’ team at the RDS.
He added: “I was originally told I wouldn’t be involved with Scotland’s ‘A’ squad because I was away with the 7’s. But I got back in and I got a voicemail telling me I was needed for training.
“I ended up on the bench and I really enjoyed the experience. I want to further myself in that way, and I was honoured to have played for Scotland ‘A’.”
Turnbull is looking forward to challenging himself maybe opposite Doug Howlett.
He said: “I look forward to playing against him because you learn things from playing against players like that; it’s also an opportunity to see what I can do against a guy like that. It would be great to be able to step up and compete with him and Munster.”
MUNSTER (Squad): D Hurley, D Howlett, R Tipoki, K Earls, K Lewis, L Mafi, C O’Boyle, J Manning, P Warwick, P Stringer, M Prendergast, D Williams, F Pucciarielllo, T Ryan, T Buckley, Daragh Hurley, D Fogarty, M Essex, M O’Driscoll, D Ryan, B Holland, A Quinlan, D Leamy, N Ronan, N Williams, J O’Sullivan.
EDINBURGH: C. Paterson, A. Turnbull, B. Cairns, N. De Luca, M. Robertson, D. Blair, G. Laidlaw, K. Traynor, A. Kelly, R. Grant, C. Hamilton, B. Gissing, S. Cross, A. Hogg (captain), A. MacDonald.
Replacements. S Lawrie, B McNeil, S MacLeod, S Newlands, B Meyer, J Thompson, R Reid.
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