McGahan calls in the cavalry for Ospreys clash

MUNSTER will roll out their stars for Saturday’s hugely important clash with table-toppers the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium.

Although coach Tony McGahan yesterday named a squad of 29, the international brigade of 12 rested from last weekend’s victory over Edinburgh are back in the frame.

The returning group include South african duo Wian du Preez and BJ Botha, Damian Varley, Donncha Ryan, Peter O’Mahony, Niall Ronan, Denis Leamy, Conor Murray, Johne Murphy and talismen Doug Howlett, Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara.

The clash with Wales’ international Test game against Australia provides an opportunity to get a positive result with Shane Williams, Huw Bennett, Ian Evans, Ryan Bevington, Ryan Jones, Justin Tipuric and Dan Biggar all out.

It is a timely opportunity as well because the Welsh side top the table on points difference from Leinster with two points to spare over Munster.

Meanwhile, Connacht would be well advised to take note of Treviso’s South African coach Franco Smith’s comments in advance of tomorrow’s clash at the Sportsground (7.30pm).

Smith is convinced his side will finish higher than the 10th position they claimed last season.

“It’s hard to say where we will finish but we want to cause as many upsets as we can and let all the other teams know who we are,” he said.

“I’m very proud that we won four straight games but against Edinburgh we dominated and should have beaten them.

“But I think that results show how far we’ve come. It’s not the big things that are the problem, not the structure, not the mentality, or lineouts, or scrums, but the small things on which we can improve.

“If each player makes a tiny error out there, that’s still 15 mistakes in a match and that is too many. The four-match winning run is behind us and we’ve lost two matches since so we need to get back on track.

“We’re getting closer and closer to the level we want to be at, we’ve got the characters and we’ve got the experience. That is all we need, but it’s not what you know but what you do with what you know that counts.”

Connacht coach Eric Elwood won’t have been sitting back waiting for points to roll his way tomorrow. All he has to do is look back to the opening day of the season when his side struggled to come away with a win in Italy, and take note that Treviso have beaten both Glasgow Warriors and Ulster on the road.

MUNSTER (v Cardiff Blues): M Horan, W du Preez , S Archer, BJ Botha, J Hayes, D Varley, D Fogarty, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, I Nagle, D Ryan, P O’Connell, B Holland, P O’Mahony, N Ronan, T O’Donnell, D Leamy, J Coughlan, C Murray, T O’Leary, R O’Gara, I Keatley, S Deasy, D Barnes, W Chambers, S Zebo, D Hurley, J Murphy, D Howlett.