Bradley brings out the big guns

RESPECTIVE coaches Michael Bradley and Tony McGahan have acted in totally contrasting fashion in their team selections for tomorrow’s crucial Magners League clash at the Galway Sportsground.

Whereas Bradley is putting out the strongest Connacht side at his disposal, making just a single change from that which defeated Bourgoin in the quarter-final of the Amlin Challenge Cup last week, the Munster line-up contains only three of those who conquered Northampton in the Heineken Cup. Paul Warwick, James Coughlan and Mick O’Driscoll, who captains the side, have been retained. If sections of Connacht’s burgeoning support base and perhaps even members of the squad itself feel they are being treated with less than the respect to which they feel they are entitled, it would be hard to blame them.

While it appears that McGahan’s hands were tied to a certain extent by injuries to Doug Howlett, Ian Dowling, Keith Earls, Jean de Villiers, Barry Murphy and Paul O’Connell, several others have been rested with next week’s game against the Ospreys, followed by the Heineken semi-final against Biarritz, in mind. Given that a four-point dividend from the game is essential to maintain Munster’s drive for a place in the play-off stages, this is definitely a risky course of action against a pumped-up home side with a massive incentive of its own to claim the spoils.