Murphy to step into Zebo void

HEINEKEN CUP POOL SIX:

Zebo was ruled out for 10 weeks on Tuesday after cracking a bone in his left foot during the defeat to Edinburgh in the opening Pool 6 game at Murrayfield last Saturday.

Head coach Rob Penney’s options for a replacement were plentiful, with Munster A running in six tries past Stirling County in the British & Irish Cup last Saturday in Bandon, but potential candidates Ronan O’Mahony and Andrew Conway have been retained in the A team for this weekend’s trip to Nottingham.

That leaves the in-form Murphy, who was a travelling reserve in Edinburgh, and Denis Hurley, a second-half replacement at Murrayfield, in the frame to start on the left wing.

Penney must name his team to face Gloucester today and the only other definite change will be in the back row with captain Peter O’Mahony, having been stood down last weekend following his head knock against Leinster the previous Saturday, set to return in place of Paddy Butler, who broke his thumb in Edinburgh.

Penney said he will not make wholesale changes but there may be tinkering within his match-day 23, with Duncan Williams, back-up scrum-half to Conor Murray, included as the Munster A’s No 9 against Nottingham, paving the way for Cathal Sheridan’s inclusion.

Williams, praised for his performance when he started against Leinster a fortnight ago, may consider himself unlucky but Sheridan had an impressive outing against Stirling.

BJ Botha could be poised for a first start of the season at Stephen Archer’s expense as Munster aim to combat a powerful Gloucester scrummaging unit that coped admirably with an even bigger pack in their defeat of Perpignan last week.

Another change may come in the back row where CJ Stander’s extra physicality could win him a starting place at openside flanker ahead of Niall Ronan, as Gloucester arrive in Limerick buoyed by a successful breakdown battle with the French Top 14 side.

Captain O’Mahony acknowledged Munster had been second best against Edinburgh last week, not least at the lineout and at ruck time, but rejected the idea that following a league victory over Leinster the province had gone into the game over-confident.

“I don’t think so and I’d hate to think that,” O’Mahony said. “We’d never like to see our team go down that route. We give a team respect but we never go overboard and everyone in the room knows what cup rugby means to Munster.

“I don’t think we showed what we can do. We didn’t play well, which is probably the most disappointing thing as I think we’ve an extremely talented young squad that can play some seriously good rugby, and I think what’s disappointing for all of us is the fact we didn’t show that, not just to our supporters and everyone watching, but to ourselves.

“We were really looking forward to getting stuck into the Heineken Cup and to show a performance like that hurts everyone in the squad.”

O’Mahony will be a much-needed boost at the lineout, which malfunctioned last Saturday with four losses on Munster’s throw.

“They’d done their homework on us,” he said of Edinburgh. “We’ve had a lot of success since the start of the season with a couple of 100% returns in this area and obviously they thought it was an area where they could go after us and shut us down.

“Paulie [Paul O’Connel] is a very proud man, Donners [Donncha O’Callaghan], me, all the back-row forwards who are involved with the lineout are not happy with it. We’ll go back, look, assess and see where we’re going.

“We have five cup games left, that’s the way we’re looking at it. It’s cup rugby from now on. It’s semi-finals and quarter-finals from now on. If we lose we’re out.”