Payne praise as O’Leary poised for shock return
Scrum-half O’Leary was yesterday added to the squad in place of Peter Stringer, who was ruled out with a calf strain, and the Irish international will take his place on the bench as understudy to Toby Morland, who starts the game as partner to Jeremy Manning.
O’Leary’s return comes earlier than expected and team manager Shaun Payne yesterday paid tribute to his perseverance in overcoming the serious injury he sustained against the Scarlets in Musgrave Park on April 24 last.
That injury dashed his dreams of joining up with the 2009 British and Irish Lions party in South Africa and was of such a serious nature that it initially threatened his future in the game.
It was believed back then that O’Leary would, at best, aim to return towards the end of November but his recovery has been hastened by a number of factors, according to manager Payne.
“Tomás has shown tremendous professionalism and dedication in getting himself back playing and great credit is due to him and to the work done by our medical and fitness staff. It is of course great to see him back in the squad, particularly after the injury he sustained,” said Payne.
Munster coach Tony McGahan has retained 20 of the 22 players involved in last week’s game against Scarlets; O’Leary replaces Stringer and French signing Julian Brugnaut comes into the team instead of Marcus Horan.
Llanelli head coach Nigel Davies is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Munster, seeing the fixture as an opportunity to secure a quick double over the top teams in Europe.
Having accounted for Heineken Cup holders Leinster in the opening game of the campaign, it’s now an opportunity for Davies’ side to make a real statement by adding the Magners League champions to their impressive list of conquests.
He said: “As a group, we’ve trained well and are up for the challenge. Munster play with huge intensity and physicality. It will be a right battle in the contact zone where I reckon the two teams will each be looking for different things to happen.
“We want to play with quick ball and I think we’re starting to show people what we can do when we create that, but Munster will want to stop us having that ball, so that’s going to be one hell of an area this weekend.”
Davies is hoping that new signing, centre Gareth Maule, who joins from Newport Gwent Dragons, will have a big impact.
“We will be looking for him to give us some power in the middle of the field,” he explained.
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