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.