No pain, no gain for unshakable Downey

James Downey saw Sunday’s Heineken Cup clash at the Stoop as the mother and father of all physical battles and had the scars to prove it when Munster gathered yesterday to run off the pain at the University of Limerick.

Downey’s second-half tackle on Harlequins full-back Mike Brown was a major moment as the two-time champions came from behind to create the big shock of the weekend, but the overall physical effort took its toll and left him in a spectator role for part of yesterday’s ‘recovery’ session.

The big centre wasn’t the only one feeling the pain, but there is unlikely to be any significant fall-out in advance of another huge game against Leinster in the RaboDirect Pro12 at Thomond Park on Saturday.