Varley let-off gives Penney lift

Damian Varley and Rob Penney and all in the Munster camp breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when the hooker was cleared to continue playing following his sending-off in the RaboDirect Pro12 defeat to Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium last week.

On a day when the walking wounded Paul O’Connell, Johne Murphy and Luke O’Dea continued to make progress on the training pitch, it was all good news for Munster, with Varley coming away with a big smile from his disciplinary hearing in Edinburgh.

Munster coach Penney had originally planned to name his squad yesterday for the game against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium but decided to push it back to wait on Varley’s fate and particularly to be able to better assess the prospects of former skipper O’Connell being able to play a role.