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.