McGahan wants rookies to step up

MUNSTER boss Tony McGahan is looking to the players within the squad to fill the breach created by Doug Howlett’s season-ending injury before widening the search for replacements to continue the Heineken Cup campaign into the New Year.

With the former All Black undergoing surgery yesterday afternoon on a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered during last weekend’s RaboDirect Pro12 league defeat at Ospreys, Munster director of rugby McGahan is banking on promising rookies like Simon Zebo stepping up to the plate as well as the return to fitness of Keith Earls and Felix Jones to see the province through its current injury crisis in the back three.

Jones’ comeback from the ankle injury, which saw him ruled out of Ireland’s World Cup campaign in August, is unlikely to be before the end of the Pool 1 qualifying campaign.