Munster dismiss Robbie Henshaw link

Munster assistant coach Ian Costello last night dismissed media reports that Robbie Henshaw could be on his way to the province at the end of next season. 

“I read that article as well and I didn’t see one quote which is interesting,” said Costello.

“Last week, they were reporting we were ready to sign Francis Saili and Agustin Creevy. Look, it’s an ongoing process. Of course, we would like to have Robbie Henshaw here — absolutely.

"But he is contracted to Connacht at the moment and it sounds like he is going to be contracted next year. In the future, if someone like Robbie is available, it would make an awful lot of sense to be going after him but at the moment all that stuff is speculation.

"We have a fairly wide list of names we are narrowing down and inquiring about their availability and we will work out what the best fit for Munster is then.”

The injury enforced retirement of Damien Varley coupled with the news Robin Copeland will play no further rugby this season cast a degree of gloom over Munster’s training session at UL yesterday.

Copeland’s first season with Munster ended in bitter disappointment for a highly talented forward who was widely regarded as a strong contender for a place in Ireland’s World Cup squad next autumn. He has been out of action since sustaining a shoulder injury against Leinster on St Stephen’s Day.

“The hope was with conservative treatment and a lot of intensive rehab he would be able to play at the end of the season,” said Costello.

“He got really close a couple of times where he did light contact but kept coming up short at the last hurdle so the medical advice now is that he needs to go for surgery.”

On the credit side, Donnacha Ryan took some part in yesterday’s session with Costello revealing that while his injured foot needs a lot of monitoring, “he has been able to add a little bit of three on three scrummaging.

Hopefully, in the next week or two, he will be allowed up to eight on eight and that’s the real test. He has to tolerate a full load in the scrum.”

Ian Keatley and Andrew Conway, late call-ups against Cardiff last week, trained yesterday and should be available for Saturday’s visit to the Scarlets.

Costello also revealed there’s a good chance Australian centre Andrew Smith will have recovered from a knee injury while the likelihood is Tommy O’Donnell and Felix Jones will be released by Ireland coach Joe Schmidt to line out at Parc Y Scarlets.

Meanwhile, Connacht’s Kieran Marmion faces a short spell on the sidelines after sustaining an AC joint sprain in the province’s Guinness Pro12 defeat to the Scarlets last weekend.

He is certain to miss the clash with the Dragons this weekend but is targeting a return from the home game with Treviso on Sunday, March 1. Ian Porter is likely to deputise in his absence.

Leinster will be without Tom Denton, Noel Reid and Richardt Strauss for the Friday night visit of Zebre to the RDS (7.35pm, TG4).

The trio were all removed from the field of play on Sunday against Dragons having shown symptoms of concussion and as a result are now subject to the return to play protocols.

On the plus side Eoin Reddan, Zane Kirchner and Gordon D’Arcy all trained with the squad yesterday after recent lay-offs.