McGahan facing tough calls ahead of Ospreys showdown

TONY McGahan is a master of keeping his feelings to himself.

While Munster’s head coach was satisfied with the hard-earned but deserved Magners League victory over the Cardiff Blues on Saturday, he was dreading the prospect of telling several players of massive reputation they are surplus to requirement in the starting side for Sunday’s Heineken Cup clash with the Ospreys at Thomond Park.

How will he look the ‘loser’ in the eyes when he decides between two outstanding scrum-halves in Peter Stringer and Tomás O’Leary?

And as if to underline the strength in depth in the Munster back division, players of the calibre of Keith Earls and Paul Warwick are not certain of their places and others like Doug Howlett, Sam Tuitupou, Lifeimi Mafi, Johne Murphy and Denis Hurley will have to sweat before learning their fate.

The decision to bring forward the kick-off time of Saturday’s game by two and a half hours proved a master stroke. Had it remained at the original 7.30pm start, the match couldn’t have even started because of the fog that reduced visibility to a few metres for the closing minutes.

A number of the November Test players returned for Munster and made the anticipated impression against gritty opposition on a cold and foggy night.

The Cardiff Blues had their Welsh stars back in the frame and with the New Zealand contingent hungry and willing in the forward exchanges, they were never going to be a pushover.

Accordingly, the area that gave McGahan most satisfaction was the scrum. We have become accustomed to seeing Munster pushed back at the set piece but the opposite was the case on Saturday even though the formidable Gethin Jenkins was the Blues tight head prop. So Tony Buckley and later John Hayes can be well pleased with their contributions, Wian du Preez was comfortable on the other side and Damien Varley, who seems to improve with every outing, was voted man of the match.

The sight of Paul O’Connell warming-up with close on a half hour remaining and then winning his first line-out with typical elan was enough to warm the heart on such a cold evening.

McGahan rightly pointed out that the captain is still a fair distance from full match fitness and the certainty is that Mick O’Driscoll and Donncha O’Callaghan will again start against the Ospreys. However, O’Connell looks sure to make an appearance at a relatively early stage of the second-half.

Interestingly, while McGahan has major calls to make in the back division, the pack is close to picking itself. There hardly seems any need to look beyond a front-row of Du Preez, Varley and Buckley, a second-row of O’Callaghan and O’Driscoll along with a back-row of Alan Quinlan, David Wallace and Denis Leamy.

Even then, the coach will have the likes of Hayes, O’Connell, Donnacha Ryan, James CoughlAn (if fit) and Niall Ronan to slot in if necessary.

It all looks a particularly healthy situation for Munster but McGahan will be hammering home the many negative aspects of Saturday’s performance — such as flanker Niall Ronan’s failed attempt to drop a goal; Alan Quinlan attempting to hack the ball left-footed from deep in his own 22 only to set up a dangerous Blues attack that was thwarted only by a brilliant try saving tackle by Mick O’Driscoll on Tom Shanklin.

The Blues had won six of their previous seven games away from home and you could see why as they remained commendably competitive to the final whistle.

Their Welsh neighbours, the Ospreys, may provide even keener opposition on Sunday and they demonstrated their well-being with a decisive 33-16 demolition of Edinburgh on Saturday.

Out-half Dan Biggar knocked over 23 points with the boot and even without the ever dangerous Shane Williams, a side boasting backs of the quality of Tommy Bowe, James Hook, Lee Byrne and Mike Phillips and well established forwards like hooker and Saturday’s man of the match Richard Hibberd, Adam and Duncan Jones, Jonathan Thomas, Alan Wyn-Jones and Ryan Jones will take a lot of beating.

Quite frequently in the past — the Ospreys have failed to live up to their billing. But the manner in which they disposed of Leinster at the RDS in last year’s Magners League final and several other impressive displays in recent times suggest that they have found the necessary steel.