Penney braced for bad news on skipper O’Mahony

Munster are fearing facing a long spell without captain Peter O’Mahony as they wait for the results of a scan on his injured shoulder today.

The dynamic back-rower wrenched his left shoulder stealing a lineout from Yoann Maestri in the opening minute of Saturday’s momentous 47-23 Heineken Cup quarter-final win over four-time champions Toulouse, and though he continued to play through a ferocious opening quarter of an hour at Thomond Park, he was forced to leave the field in the 18th minute.

O’Mahony, returned to the pitch with his left arm in a sling at full-time to celebrate with his team-mates following the six-try romp that sends Munster into the last four for the second year in succession. Yet head coach Rob Penney’s initial medical bulletin and the manner in which it was delivered suggests the Ireland flanker will certainly be absent for the away semi-final on April 27.

“It doesn’t look good but we won’t react too much until we’ve seen the scans,” Penney said. “He has some shoulders issues through the Six Nations. He basically threw his shoulder out when he cut their lineout out. He didn’t land on it or anything, just over-extended.

“It’s sad for him but we will see what happens in next 24 hours or so. It doesn’t look great.”

O’Connell was certainly fearing the worst when asked about his Munster and Ireland team-mate’sinjury, adding: “He’s going to be a massive loss for us. He’s a brilliant captain, a brilliant leader and has a very no-nonsense way of doing things. He leads really aggressively in everything he does, an excellent lineout option as well, He’s going to be a big loss.”

The former skipper, though, said Munster would soldier on and praised O’Mahony’s replacement CJ Stander, whose contribution to the cause earned him the man of the match award.

“I suppose you go back to Declan Kidney’s era [as head coach] and every injury is just an opportunity for somebody else,” said O’Connell. “There are plenty of guys who can take those opportunities, like CJ did.”

In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s bruising encounter with Toulouse, Munster reported no further injuries though their resources on the front row are missing some vital experience with loosehead James Cronin injuring an ankle in training last week and tight head Stephen Archer coming to terms with a bulging disc in his neck.

Both missed Saturday’s game, with John Ryan standing in on both sides of the scrum, initially at loosehead following Dave Kilcoyne’s 10-minute trip to the sin bin and then finishing the game at tighthead as a replacement for BJ Botha.

Penney said he would not dwell for too long on Saturday’s epic victory with the league campaign resuming next Saturday with a visit of Glasgow Warriors to Thomond Park.

“We’re going to have to move on pretty quickly, given we haveGlasgow at home which will be a terrific match in its own right. There will have to be some changes, given the boys have had a hard month.”