Flannery set to make return from suspension
Denis Hurley, who picked up a mild hamstring strain in the win over Glasgow Warriors on Friday night, is ruled out, as are long-term injury victims Denis Leamy, Donnacha Ryan and Darragh Hurley, while Barry Murphy rolled his ankle in his comeback game for UL Bohemian at the weekend.
There is also a slight concern about Paul O’Connell, one of three players hit by a stomach bug during a two-day mini-camp. He will be monitored over the next couple of days but is expected to be back to full health by Friday night. And the good news for Munster is that hooker Jerry Flannery is eligible once again having served his six-week suspension. And given the significance of the game, Munster coach Tony McGahan yesterday included all his available big names with the very obvious ambition of reversing the losing trend with Leinster.
“You always try to keep some perspective but obviously Leinster being very close neighbours, being such an excellent side and with such a great rivalry, we understand the ramifications of getting one over on them,” said McGahan.
“There’s a lot to play for emotionally but the four points are still going to be the same at the end of the day. We have five boys coming back not having played with us for a long time but they’re all fully motivated.”
Whereas Munster clearly stepped up a gear last week in beating Glasgow, Leinster gave a disappointing display against Connacht. But McGahan suspects that won’t have any effect on how the teams performs this week. He believes that “in these high quality matches, form can be left at the doorstep”. As for the players coming back off the Six Nations, McGahan’s experience is that “they always play well for Munster”.
Many would have thought that nothing could be worse than the 25-9 Heineken Cup hammering Munster took at Croke Park last May but then came the 30-0 drubbing at the RDS in October. Another defeat, would surely do a lot of damage to their self-belief but McGahan doesn’t see it like that.
“If you look at where we were coming from in October, I think we had eight players making their first start of the season,” he pointed out. “Obviously, Leinster have moved on but so have we. We’re nearly 26 weeks down the track, both sides have performed well to get to the quarter-finals of the Heineken but both are coming from different meeting points on Friday evening.”
The game will be refereed by Englishman Andrew Small and McGahan is hoping to have a chat with him about the ongoing controversy surrounding the implementation of the tackle law. To date, he has been led to believe that the Magners and Heineken matches will be handled under the old interpretation and that there has been no official change.
“We’re taking it week by week and asking each referee where he stands and taking steps so we won’t be taken by surprise,” said the Aussie. “You’re doing your work on the referee, collating his games over a period of time to make sure you understand his points of reference. You just have to adapt and that was the case under the old interpretation as well because you can have a ref from any part of the world and it differs from week to week.”
MUNSTER SQUAD: M. Horan, D. Ryan, T. Buckley, D. Fogarty, J. Flannery, D. Varley, D. O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll, P. O’Connell, A. Quinlan, D. Wallace, N. Ronan, N. Williams, J. Coughlan, B. Holland; T. O’Leary, P. Stringer, R. O’Gara, P. Warwick, L. Mafi, J. de Villiers, T. Gleeson, K. Earls, I. Dowling, D. Howlett, S. Deasy.
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