McGahan still beset by Munster injury woes

MUNSTER injury concerns are so great that coach Tony McGahan was last night unable to announce a squad for Saturday’s Magners League semi-final against Leinster at the RDS.

Apart from confirming that skipper Paul O’Connell will remain in a Cork hospital until tomorrow after a procedure on his groin injury and that winger Ian Dowling is another non-starter, McGahan could only hope that a whole raft of front line players, including Jerry Flannery, Mick O’Driscoll, Doug Howlett and Keith Earls, will be available when it comes to finalising the side at lunch time on Friday.

“Everyone who was missing at this stage last week is still under suspicion,” said McGahan.

“We’re hopeful Jerry Flannery, Mick O’Driscoll, Doug Howlett and Keith Earls will be okay. Keith didn’t train today and, in fact, has been on limited training ever since the Six Nations. He can’t train for long periods before games and we need to be very selective. He’ll have a run-out (today) and we’ll get a reading on him for Thursday. Micko worked today although at a very slow pace and we also hope to get a clearer picture of him over the next couple of days.”

McGahan accepts that all these niggles are what can be expected at the end of a long season and knows Leinster have similar problems with captain Leo Cullen also out of the reckoning and with Michael Cheika also facing one or two other problems as well.

Both coaches, though, will take comfort from the fact that excellent Welsh official Nigel Owens will referee the game.

“He’s a top-class referee for a top-class match,” said McGahan.

“He’s going to be well in control, he knows all about derby games and semi-finals. With all the passion and emotion, physicality and talking there’s going to be from both camps, you need e a strong person with a lot of experience in the middle.

Having lost their last three matches against Leinster, twice by embarrassing margins, Munster won’t lack for incentive on Saturday. Their previous meeting at the RDS last October resulted in 30-0 drubbing for McGahan’s side but he has clearly taken solace from the margin being as tight as 16-15 in the second Magners clash at Thomond Park on Good Friday.

“Leinster really pinned us in our own half in the last 20 minutes and put us under an immense amount of pressure,” he said.

“There wasn’t much in it with a bounce try to separate the sides. I think the kicking game is going to be a huge part of the weekend. Leinster have demonstrated this year and last that they have great physicality in attack and defence and that’s going to be a crucial area for us as well.

“We have been very inconsistent all season. There have been some excellent days but we’ve also let ourselves down with inconsistency right across the park – it’s been set piece, attack, break down, goal kicking, field kicking. We have only on limited occasions managed to gel everything together.”

Reaching the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup and Magners and the final of the B & I Cup has made for what McGahan describes as “an okay season” while stressing that ending the year with silverware would make it a whole lot better.

“We recognise that when we get all these things right we can play the game we’re trying to play whether it’s a very tough, grinding it out, forward orientated game with a lot of kicking or trying to play with a bit of width”, said McGahan.

“It’s what every side is aiming to do and we haven’t been able to do that consistently enough. We have to recognise that it’s a one-off game this week-end and it’s where you are at mentally is going to determine the result.

“It’s been a terrifically long season. We had eight or nine guys on the Lions tour, we’ve had injuries and suspensions, so even though we didn’t win at the weekend, we certainly felt we did enough to get a result and it certainly gave the squad a boost heading into a semi-final week-end away from home against Leinster in Dublin. I don’t know too many professional sides in semi-finals who don’t have an incentive about them.”