O’Connell’s ‘race against the clock’ as Biarritz battle looms

MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan admits captain Paul O’Connell is in “a race against the clock” to be fit for Sunday’s Heineken Cup semi-final with Biarritz.

O’Connell, along with Keith Earls, Doug Howlett and Tony Buckley, were amongst the marquee names missing for Saturday night’s Magners League defeat to the Ospreys.

Though McGahan is confident the latter three will make the squad for San Sebastian he revealed O’Connell’s long-standing groin problem remains the biggest cause of concern ahead of the trip to San Sebastian.

He said: “It’s a race against the clock for Paulie. We’re doing everything possible to get him into the frame to play. But more importantly he needs to be in the frame to train because he hasn’t played for a long time.

“That’s the first obstacle, to train, then it’s a selection matter.”

McGahan’s men received a huge vote of confidence from Saturday night’s opponents. The Ospreys were pipped by Biarritz in the quarter-finals in Estadio Anoeta (29-28) but both coach Sean Holley and prop forward Adam Jones believe Munster can make the final in Stade de France on May 22.

Holley claimed: “Munster have that resolve in tight games that we are learning. They will go to Biarritz and believe they can win. We had the belief we could come here and win and they’ll see our performance against Biarritz and see where they need to take them on.”

Holley and Jones also hinted that Biarritz may lack the fitness and stamina for 80 minutes of intense rugby..

“Without being too disrespectful, Biarritz were out on their feet by half time in our game,” Holley claimed. “We ran them a bit ragged, we played a lot of football, we passed the ball a lot and cut them to pieces.

“Munster have the players to do that and the game plan to do it. They have the complete game to go there and I don’t see Biarritz applying the amount of pressure on them that we did on Saturday.”

Tight-head prop Jones agreed with that view. “I believe they have the players to beat Biarritz. We saw our backs cutting them to pieces every time and Munster have players like de Villiers and Mafi who can do that. I can’t see them losing down there, especially with their experience in front, and especially if Paulie is back.

“I just think they’ve got too much in their armoury. They’ve got a good pack and if Rog is on form, they’ve got the full team. It’s not 10-man rugby any more. I thought Biarritz were quite limited when we played them. They were quite tired when we wererunning at them.”

Holley also claimed his side should take some credit if Munster and Leinster progress to the Heineken Cup decider.

Though disappointed after Saturday’s defeat – especially at the breakdown – McGahan wasn’t prepared to hit the panic button with six days to go to their European mission in Spain.

“Saturday showed that if you’re not 100% in the game against quality sides, you’re going to come off second-best.

“Once you get to this level, it’s about your mental application and how hard you hit.”

But he warned: “Without a doubt, we need the intensity back. You’re looking at a Munster side in the Heineken Cupsemi-final and that (intensity) is what we’d be expecting and what we’ll be delivering.

“I don’t really know if the current form holds any water. It’s a one-off game, it’s a semi-final. You saw that when we played Leinster here, we were close but a little off the mark. Then we came out and played well the following week.”