Game time key for refreshed Stringer

Peter Stringer returns to competitive action with Munster this weekend rejuvenated by his six-month sojourn in England last season and looking forward to staking his claim to more game time in a red jersey.

After impressive turns off the bench during pre-season, 34-year-old Stringer will vie with Duncan Williams for the starting scrum-half position when Munster begin their RaboDirect Pro12 campaign against Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Saturday (8pm).

With a one-year extension to his contract announced last March, Stringer was never too far from Munster’s planning, but a few months earlier the 98-times capped Ireland scrum-half had found himself third in the pecking order of No 9s in Tony McGahan’s thinking, behind Tomás O’Leary and Conor Murray.