Red Army bolstered ahead of Connacht showdown

MUNSTER sold 22,000 tickets for their St Stephen’s night Magners League game against Connacht at Thomond Park before their victory over Perpignan.

After the amazing result in the south of France, the Red Army will surely grow in size with the possibility of a sell out 26,000 crowd heading to Limerick on the day after Christmas. The feelgood factor derived from the Heineken Cup result cannot be underestimated, even if Munster will be far from full-strength for the clash with Michael Bradley’s men. Because of guidelines and stipulations laid down by the Irish team management and the IRFU, those on international contracts are restricted to six matches in every eight weeks. As a result, Munster will be minus many of their big names on Saturday.

Skipper Paul O’Connell, the honeymooning Donncha O’Callaghan, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, John Hayes, Tomás O’Leary, Ronan O’Gara and Keith Earls will be recharging the batteries before returning for a difficult Magners League assignment with Ulster at Ravenhill on January 2.

Connacht come to the game with an excellent form of recent weeks including their back-to-back wins over Worcester which leaves them on the cusp of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Sean Cronin has been an inspirational figure in the middle of their front-row with John Muldoon a hugely effective captain and pack leader. Both will be keen to impress Irish coach Declan Kidney who has been monitoring their progress closely. Frank Murphy and Ian Keatley form a very useful half-pairing while Gavin Duffy is a quality full-back.

The break for the big name players provides coach Tony McGahan with an opportunity to look at the many youngsters who shone in the pre-season friendlies and early Magners matches before giving way to the internationals.

It’s likely that Paul Warwick will move from full-back to out-half to partner Peter Stringer, that Jean De Villiers and Lifeimi Mafi will form the centre partnership, that Denis Hurley will revert to full-back while Doug Howlett and Ian Dowling are likely candidates on the wing.

The situation up front is nearly as favourable. South African Wian Du Preez has proved one of Munster’s most astute signings and he will continue at loose head while hopes are high that MarcusHoran’s return to action will beeven sooner than had been anticipated.

The front-row will be completed by Denis Fogarty – who had his best European Cup game in Perpignan – and Tony Buckley with Darragh Hurley, Julien Brugnaut and Damien Varley among the reserves. Mick O’Driscoll should captain the side from the second-row alongside Donncha Ryan with consideration also given to Ian Nagle. Alan Quinlan is probably entitled to a rest and if McGahan takes that option, then James Coughlan, Nick Williams, Niall Ronan, Billy Holland and Tommy O’Donnell enter the back-row equation.