Leinster finally sign Thorn

Leinster have finally ended the longer-than-expected process of bringing Brad Thorn to Dublin by signing the Kiwi World Cup winner on a three-month contract that shores up a gaping hole in their second-row.

The European champions were facing a major short-term dilemma with captain Leo Cullen currently recuperating from surgery and Steven Sykes having returned to South Africa. But the capture of the 37-year-old, who arrives from Japan where he had been lining out with Fukuoka Sanix Blues since the World Cup final defeat of France in October, has been hailed by scrum-half Eoin Reddan.

“He has big experience and hopefully he’ll add a lot. The dressing-room at Leinster is quite a strong dressing-room, the way we train and all that kind of stuff, and from what I hear of Brad he’s exactly the same so hopefully he’ll be a nice fit.

“It’s great to be in an environment where you’ve got a structure and a club that can go and do something of this magnitude, really go and sort out a problem of this magnitude if a potential problem arises in terms of an injury.

“It gives the organisation a chance to carry on and succeed this season. It says a lot about the whole approach and attitude of the backroom team that they managed to go and get him. It will add to the squad if he integrates well and I’m sure he will.”

Thorn’s age would normally serve as a flashing red light, as would the fact that he has now played rugby for 15 months straight, but the Mosgiel-born lock has long been an exception to many widely-held rules.

He appeared over 200 times for the Brisbane Broncos in two spells playing Rugby League, won NRL Grand Final titles, featured in the State of Origin series and is only the second man to have represented Australia in league and New Zealand in union.

“I’m pretty excited to be here,” he said yesterday. “I’ve been here a few times with the All Blacks and always had a great time in Ireland and I’m hoping to play some good rugby and get a feel for living here for a little bit.”

Meanwhile David Wallace will give Munster a huge boost this weekend when he returns from injury to secure another much-needed RaboDirect Pro12 victory away to Aironi.

In a week when the province received bad injury news about Paul O’Connell and Conor Murray, Wallace’s return couldn’t have been better timed.

“It is of course great to have him back in the squad,” said stand-in captain Mick O’Driscoll.

“Never mind the fact that he’s a class player, to see him recovered from what was a serious injury, to have him back involved, is just a great boost to us all coming at such a crucial point in the season.

“We identified this block of games as hugely important towards our aim of finishing in the top four and making the play offs. It’s always a difficult time with lads away and points at this stage are so crucial. People say there are no trophies given out in March and they’re right, but you can lose trophies at this stage of a season.”

MUNSTER panel (v Aironi): M Horan, W Du Preez, BJ Botha, J Ryan, D Fogarty, M Sherry, S Archer, B Holland, I Nagle, M O’Driscoll, Dave O’Callaghan, T O’Donnell, P Butler, J Coughlan, D Wallace, C Sheridan, D Williams, I Keatley, S Deasy, S Zebo, L Mafi, S Tokula, L O’Dea, D Hurley, F Jones, S Scanlon, J Murphy.