Francis Saili set to make Munster debut against Connacht

Francis Saili, Munster’s big name signing from Auckland, is set to make his first appearance in the red jersey in Friday’s friendly against Connacht at Thomond Park.

Saili helped New Zealand to win the Junior World Cup in 2011 and a couple of years later made two appearances in the All Black jersey while a member of the Auckland Blues Super 14 side. He wasn’t due to arrive in Ireland for another month or so but Munster were able to negotiate an early release for the burly centre – Saili stands 5’11” and weighs in at 15½ stone – and there is every reason to hope he will follow in the footsteps of other successful overseas signings in the position like Trevor Halstead, Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi and make a similar impression.

The inclusion of Saili, the return of long term injury victims Mike Sherry and Dave O’Callaghan and the inclusion of Ian Keatley, James Cronin, Stephen Archer, Jack O’Donoghue, CJ Stander, Duncan Williams, Shane Monahan and CJ Stander should make for greater interest in the Connacht game as little more than a handful turned up for last week’s clash with Grenoble.

Tyler Bleyendaal and Robin Copeland, both of whom retired early against the French side, won’t be seen this week although there is no concern about their fitness. On Bleyendaal, Foley commented: “He can play the game. He has composure, he leads fellas, he lets guys around him in no doubt about what they are doing and that gives everyone around him an air of confidence.” Nor has the coach heard from Joe Schmidt any of his players currently in Irish camp will be released to him by the end of the week.

“I think our lot up there have been doing very well,” Foley maintained. “I felt Zeebs (Simon Zebo) and Dave (Kilcoyne) were excellent, carrying the ball well and they were abrasive in defence and put a lot of physical impact into the game. The only two of our lads who haven’t played are Peter (O’Mahony) and Conor (Murray) and from there, they all seem to be in good health and looking forward to making the squad.”

The Munster-Connacht game on Friday will be preceded by the second Limerick World Club Sevens in which all four Irish provinces will be involved with a number of overseas teams. Foley believes the tournament can help to show off the footballing talents of a number of his squad.

“There are a lot of our lads who played in the Irish Sevens team who got good exposure and we look forward to seeing the Alex Wootens and the Diarmuid McCarthys in open field,” he noted.

“Darren Sweetnam, Ned Hodson, Shane Buckley, Ronan O’Mahony, Luke O’Dea, Steve Fitzgerald all played well last year but we also shipped major injuries to Gerhard Van den Heever and Luke O’Dea during those games. Look, you want to get into those games but you don’t want injuries.”

Munster were a little taken aback when Grenoble put out a full side last week but Foley expects a more level playing field. “With the bodies we have coming back we should be better, and obviously some of last week’s will be retained because they did really and deserve another go.”