O’Connell defiant as pressure on Munster
The winger had a scan on his knee yesterday which revealed medial ligament damage. Munster’s medical team announced he will be out of action for at least four to six weeks but with a visit to the Scarlets pencilled in for December 10, and the return leg on December 18, he could miss the two crucial clashes.
It’s all adding to the pressure heaped on the side ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Northampton at home. Typically any team coming to Thomond Park for the start of the Heineken Cup would be hoping for a losing bonus point at most.
But with injuries mounting and retirements robbing the province of more leaders every year, the home fortress is looking decidedly fragile for this weekend’s 6pm game.
“It is going to be an incredibly tough game against last season’s beaten finalists,” said Munster captain Paul O’Connell.
“I know from personal experience what a Heineken Cup final did to us — it galvanises you even more and makes you want it even more.”
O’Connell is wary of the physicality they will bring to Thomond Park and, from his own experience, thinks they will be one of the favourites to lift the cup at the end of the season.
“When you look at their team, they have class and physicality everywhere, from their front row to full back, and they will be all the stronger for the bitter experience from last year,” he said.
“Perhaps you never go as close as last season, when they were so far ahead, but they will have learned a lot from that, stored up that experience and be increasingly determined this year.”
However that challenge gives him and his Irish colleagues an opportunity to overcome the disappointment of the World Cup.
“Both Irish and English players will be disappointed with their World Cups, none of us went out to New Zealand to come home after the quarter-final stage, but you just have to get on with it and immerse yourself in your club side.”
And once they get that first game out of the way, he is hoping Munster will return to past glories. However, a meeting with the Scarlets and a chance to put one over the Welsh players who knocked them out of the World Cup, is already providing a motivation for the second row.
“We also have the Scarlets in our group — the club who knocked us out of the Heineken Cup in the 2007 quarter-finals when they beat us 24-15 — and their World Cup players will have plenty of confidence after New Zealand, as well as having a great tradition in the tournament.”
Elsewhere Ulster received good news last night as x-rays on skipper Johann Muller’s left arm and Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris’s right ankle showed nothing more than respective serious bruising and strained ligaments. Tom Court was also taken off on Saturday with a knee injury but that was a precautionary measure.
* Friday night’s RaboDirect Pro 12 match between Leinster and Munster pulled in TG4’s highest audience ratings ever for a rugby match. 635,000 people tuned in, with the audience for the match peaking at 338,000 viewers towards the end. An average of 183,000 watched the entire match.
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