Penney picking big guns for Ulster clash

Munster’s current rotation policy in selection may be paying dividends for the RaboDirect Pro12 leaders but head coach Rob Penney is set to recall as many front line players as he can for Friday’s trip to inter-provincial rivals Ulster.

The southern province made it nine wins in-a-row in all competitions with a 22-16 victory over neighbours Connacht at Thomond Park on Friday night to end 2013 with a seven-point lead at the top of the league table.

With just one defeat in the Rabo this season, at Treviso on Sepember 20, Munster’s league form has been achieved without consistency in selection as Penney bids to bring a depth of experience to his squad, handing debuts to numerous young players and rotating his front rows, in particular on a weekly basis, even in Europe.

Yet with the closing games in the Heineken Cup group stages looming and just one remaining game before a Pool 6 clash at Gloucester, the New Zealander looks set to revert to full strength as Munster face a difficult trip to Ravenhill.

With hooker Damien Varley overcoming illness, fly-half Ian Keatley due to return from a hip/groin problem, full-back Felix Jones set to resume training after a neck spasm cost him his place against Connacht, and Penney not overly concerned by Sean Dougall’s ankle problem, the only short-term absentees are likely to be Donnacha Ryan and Simon Zebo.

Ryan suffered another knee injury in training following his return against Perpignan a fortnight ago, while Zebo is still not fully fit after breaking a bone in his foot during the European loss at Edinburgh in October.

“I think we’ve got a full roster available next week, apart from those longer term injuries. Donnacha Ryan won’t be available and a couple of others too. Zebo, I don’t think so,” Penney said.

“I suspect both teams are going to be reasonably close to full strength and it should be sparks a-flying.”

Such is the strength in depth in the back three that Penney said there was no urgency to rush Zebo back.

“I think he’ll be back [training] on the grass this week,” the Munster boss said.

“Obviously because of the nature of his injury we’ll just be ultra cautious.

We’ve got some good boys going in the back three, if he’s not right, he’s not right.

“We don’t need to try to force him because he’s really important to Irish rugby. He’s probably been shut out at the moment so he just needs to come back and be in good form and try to force his claims.”

As for Ryan, Penney conceded his latest knee injury could make him a doubt for the trip to Gloucester on January 11.

“Possibly, yeah, I suspect that injury is just marginal.

It’s a real shame, a real shame. Just had a small incident and it’s just set him back a little bit.”

Munster’s win over Connacht, while hard-fought, came from a side with just one player, JJ Hanrahan, having been retained from the previous week’s victory over Scarlets and the rotation policy is backed by No.8 James Coughlan, who captained the side to victory last Friday and spoke of high confidence levels in whoever plays each week.

“I think we have an extremely good squad and it doesn’t matter if he makes 15 changes next week, we are capable of winning every game.

“I think everyone is proud to play for Munster and it doesn’t matter who is playing, who is not playing, everyone wants to put their hand up and I think it is a mark of the depth in the squad that we can make 14 changes and still win the game.

“The encouraging thing is that we haven’t been playing very well, we’ve been grinding out wins and got away with murder two weeks in-a-row.

“There’s plenty of areas to work on and if we actually start playing well we’ll be very dangerous. We can go a long way in both competitions.”

Meanwhile the IRFU announced yesterday that Ireland’s 2014 RBS 6 Nations home games against Scotland (February 2), Wales (February 8) and Italy (March 8) have all sold out.