Boost as Leamy and Quinlan fit for Munster

DENIS LEAMY and Alan Quinlan have been declared fit to play for Munster against Northampton Saints in their first match of the new Heineken European Cup season at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.

There were fears that Leamy had suffered a recurrence of the shoulder injury that bedevilled his campaign last year late on at the RDS on Saturday night but that proved not to be the case. Coach Tony McGahan confirmed last night that Leamy took a knock to the neck but it was not serious. Likewise, Quinlan, who missed that game because of another neck injury, has made a full recovery.

And with skipper Paul O’Connell, Jerry Flannery and David Wallace coming through their first game time of the season, it is certain that there will be quite a few changes in the starting line-up. However, the situation concerning John Hayes, who was red carded against Leinster and faces a disciplinary hearing in Belfast this afternoon, remains unclear. If, as seems likely, he is handed a suspension, his place will go to Tony Buckley.

Meanwhile, McGahan and his coaching staff have been digesting the lessons of the 30-0 hammering they took against Leinster and hoping to put plans in place for a backlash performance.

“It was difficult waking up on Sunday morning, but now we’re looking forward to training and getting back to the core principles we need to be good against a good Northampton side,” said McGahan. “For the first time this year, we will have a full selection panel. We await John Hayes’s situation but at this point in time, we think we’ll be fine.

“The players would like to have more game time under their belts. But we can’t control that, all we can control is our attitude, our mindset and the way we need to play and that’s all we’ll be focusing on this week. The belief from the management to the squad and back is very strong and we will set out with a very clear agenda of how we need to get a result away from home this week.”