Patient Foley bides time over injured Munster stars
Following last Saturday’s 16-9 defeat to the French Top14 high-fliers at Thomond Park, Foley’s squad must win at Stade Marcel Michelin this Sunday to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup.
Yet injuries to both starter Dave Kilcoyne and his replacement James Cronin during the home loss mean Munster could be without both their Irish international looseheads.
Kilcoyne went down with a knee injury in the 12th minute with Cronin coming off the bench to make his first appearance since suffering an ankle injury in the Champions Cup home win over Saracens in October. The Corkman finished the game but is now under medical review following a knock on the shoulder.
Foley refused the pair out, saying yesterday: “They are always possibilities until they’re ruled out. We’ll keep it alive for them.
“It’s never ideal to have two in one position coming out. Hopefully we can maybe get one of them back, maybe the two of them, we don’t know yet. Fortunately it’s a Sunday fixture so we have an extra day to get the bangs and bruises out of the way and see where fellas are at.”
If both fail to pass fit, Munster are likely to go with a combination of John Ryan and short-term signing from Argentina Eusebio Guinazu, although Foley also threw the possibility of switching one of his tighthead props across to the other side of the front row.
“We’ve played John Ryan at loosehead already this season so he is an option. Eusebio is an option so we do have options there, BJ Botha, you know, Stephen Archer are there as well.
“It’s important that we give it as much time as possible because it’s a critical area within the game.”
The situation is further complicated by the fact that Guinazu, primarily a hooker but who has played Test rugby at loosehead, is recovering from a hamstring problem that has seen him out of action for the past three games.
“Eusebio’s first game he played for us against Leinster A, he played seven minutes at hooker and the rest of the game at loosehead. He has played loosehead for Argentina a few years ago so he’s not a stranger to the position. He picked up an injury going into the Dragons game and hopefully we can get him through the next couple of days. He worked hard with the physios yesterday and scrummaged at the end of the session.”
The front row is not Foley’s only concern with wing Gerhard van den Heever ruled out with a knee injury suffered last Saturday, while centre Andrew Smith is still touch and go, having missed last weekend’s game with a knee injury.
“We have Ronan O’Mahony, Johne Murphy and Andrew Conway as (wing) options. Andrew played in the A game at the weekend and went quite well there, so there’s a few hands in the mix there. Andrew Smith was training with the physios and doing a lot of contact so we’d hope to see if he can train on Friday.”
Foley, meanwhile, explained his decision not to utilise his bench as Munster tried to claw their way back into contention at Thomond Park, instead making just two enforced substitutions.
“There were a few things that were changing in the game. At one stage we were looking to bring on JJ Hanrahan at 12 then Denis Hurley started making a few telling breaks up the middle of the pitch giving us momentum so we put that on hold.
“We had enforced substitutions too and then it was, you know, whether we then get Sean Dougall on to snaffle and tidy up some ball around loose areas but by that stage it had become very attritional. We were looking to make an impact. Unfortunately at the time I thought the team on the pitch were doing a job for us and that was the team that got us over the line against Sale as well. When they’re in that mode what you don’t want to do is chop and change a whole pile, you want to keep that momentum going.”
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