McGahan looks for the right combos

TONY MCGAHAN made a conscious decision this week not to dwell on the opposition, instead focusing on getting Munster right for today’s must-win Heineken Cup clash against Toulon at Thomond Park (3.30pm).

It was just as well, because McGahan would have been wasting his time scanning Toulon’s performance against the Ospreys last week given that there are only three survivors from the starting line up; stars such as Juan Fernandez Lobbe are excluded entirely, and Jonny Wilkinson is demoted to the replacements bench.

While Munster’s starting line up shows no real surprise – with four changes from last week – McGahan’s counterpart Philippe Saint-Andre has done the expected in a sense; it’s not the first time a French side travelled to Ireland with a new-look side from European action a week before. It’s the way they do things, and contrary to popular opinion it’s not always a sign that they’re waving a white flag because they’re not on home soil.

Saint-Andre has called up Felipe Contepomi to the number 10 jersey and paired him with Pierre Mignoni, as well as including former All Black Carl Hayman at tight head prop. With George Smith and Paul Sackey also in the mix, it’s not as if they don’t have some household names.

Much of McGahan’s personal dilemma this week will have centred around the midfield vacancy created by the suspension of Sam Tuitupou, how adequately to fill the gap and with whom and also to assess how Munster can expect to secure more quality possession from line outs and the rucks.

On the first count he has banked on Johne Murphy to fill Tuitupou’s shoes at 12 – a tall but not outrageous order – and so the former Leicester man switches from full-back to allow Paul Warwick back for another start.

Not surprisingly, given the huge injury list amongst the backs, there are no further changes and McGahan has stuck with the obvious front row considering the improvement brought about in the Munster scrum this season by the form of Wian du Preez, Damien Varley and Tony Buckley.

Varley holds on despite the availability of Jerry Flannery – back after injury – and will be keen to make a statement in the face of that serious threat to his place in the team. In a bid to stabilise a creaking line-out, Mick O’Driscoll returns as second row partner to Donncha O’Callaghan, and much will be expected of him.

McGahan might well have felt the back row he chose for last week’s opener against London Irish was the right one for that particular game, but hindsight showed it wasn’t. Accordingly, he has called back the old guard in the form of Alan Quinlan and David Wallace who will flank captain Denis Leamy. They replace Niall Ronan and James Coughlan respectively, both of whom are, with Ryan, included in the list of reserves, of which six of the eight are forwards.