Varley must battle with close friend Sherry for hooker spot

Damien Varley may be a close friend and Garryowen clubmate of Michael Sherry but intends to fight him tooth and nail as first choice Munster hooker.

The 30 year-old Varley was a relatively late arrival on the provincial scene, having played club rugby for a number of years before turning professional at London Wasps. Having created a big impression across channel, he gladly answered the Munster call and made his debut against Ospreys in May 2006. Sherry, 25, came directly from the AIL into the pro game and having made his first appearance against Connacht at Thomond Park in December 2009, picked up an Irish cap during the summer tour of the US and Canada. Both men have served Munster well over the years leaving coach Rob Penney with some difficult choices to make.

“Mike and myself are not exempt from competition or pressure,” Varley smiles. “We are battling it out and I think we are making better players of each other so we’ll see what happens over the coming weeks. I’m confident in my abilities and what I’m doing and so let’s wait and see what the coaches think.”

What is first and foremost on the mind of the coaching staff was the side’s horrendous second half collapse in Treviso last Friday night and resultant defeat in Italy.

Varley didn’t sugarcoat the issue and hopes that the problems can be ironed out before Saturday’s clash with the Dragons at Musgrave Park.

“It was a very disappointing result that we were gutted. We had it in our grasp when ten points up but obviously we have to take it on the chin and regroup this week with a few big matches coming up. You can’t win a game when you have four guys in the sin bin.

The changes in the laws governing scrummage time mean that an even greater than usual emphasis rests on the shoulders of the hookers with a considerable importance resting on how they can cope.

Varley: “The purpose of the new laws is to stop the amount of collapses of the last few years and I think it has certainly helped. Scrummaging is such a technical area that I think it will take a number of weeks for referees and teams to get used to it. It has gone back to old school hooking skills and that’s not a bad thing for guys who like to scrummage so, it’s a new skill for a lot of young guys and hopefully a strength of our game.”

British & Irish Lions number eight Toby Faletau is included in the Dragons squad but they will be without hooker Rhys Thomas who is out of rugby until 2014 having suffered a serious ankle injury.