Front-row fitness paramount for Payne

MUNSTER team manager Shaun Payne has admitted there is no room for further injuries within the group of front row players available to the province, even though he is not yet in the mood to panic.

The Magners League champions take on Edinburgh at Murrayfield tonight and opportunity knocks for the likes of Darragh Hurley and Julien Brugnaut, albeit in a near-crisis situation that sees the province stripped of front-line hard men such as John Hayes, Marcus Horan, Tony Buckley and Dave Ryan.

Munster are one further front-row injury away from potential disaster and will hope this evening that Hurley, Brugnaut and, if necessary, youngster Stephen Archer are still left standing at the end of what is bound to be a bruising encounter against last season’s league runners-up.

The positives for Munster come in the form of availability of a near full-strength side apart from that front row injury drama.

Head coach Tony McGahan has relied on most of his first-choice side including the likes of Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, David Wallace and Denis Leamy in a big, experienced pack. With Alan Quinlan given a well earned rest, Niall Ronan has been chosen, unusually, at blindside flanker although he may well alternate with David Wallace in that role next to Leamy.

Apart from the absence of the injured Doug Howlett, the Munster back division will start at full strength and that alone is an indication of intent as Edinburgh chose to select a top-class back-line that includes Chris Paterson, Ben Cairns, Nick De Luca and captain Mike Blair.

From Munster’s point of view, it is an opportunity to give another run to McGahan’s favoured centre pairing of Lifeimi Mafi and Jean de Villiers; a unit both of the players and coach admitted last week could best be described as a “work in progress.”

In relation to this clash, Payne said he was both impressed with Munster’s potential and worried about what the home side might achieve.

“That Edinburgh back division has a pretty international look about it; we’re facing up against a pretty formidable side that performed very well last season – we were pretty glad to get out of there with a positive result – and they play a pretty positive brand of rugby.”

The manager is not fooled by suggestions from Edinburgh that Munster are the standard-bearers for all to follow.

“That’s nice, if someone said it, but it’s a build-up, you take that with a grain of salt; nobody can deny that Leinster have pushed on as well. Fair enough, we have had a lot of success but the standard we set is what we expect of ourselves; we know we are the target of other teams and we have to keep that (a sense of perspective) in mind.”

Even in the face of front-row difficulties, however, Payne believes that opportunity could really knock for Darragh Hurley who is named in the starting XV for the first time this season.

Hurley’s last start for Munster was in the Magners League game against the Dragons in Rodney Parade last March and there was a subsequent appearance off the bench the following week in Firhill against Glasgow Warriors before injury put an end to his season.

This year, he was on the bench for the Heineken Cup trip to Franklin’s Gardens against Northampton and he made a very favourable impression last Saturday in Thomond Park when he came on as 48th-minute replacement for Buckley.

There are question marks about Edinburgh’s current form, even if they did manage to snatch victory at the death over Ulster in the Heineken Cup last weekend.

Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat is delighted, however, to welcome back leading points scorer Chris Paterson, who is named at full-back.

Moffat also reckons that the return of Cairns is a timely boost.

“He gets on particularly well with Nick (De Luca),” said Moffat.

“The goal kicking prowess of Chris will be a bonus although he hasn’t been selected solely for that reason – he’s a pretty special player anyway and he is capable of inflicting damage on the opposition.”