Munster players on trial for Leicester Tigers test
The clear message is: don’t even think of going into next week’s European Cup game against Leicester Tigers on the back of two losses in a row.
There is no doubt that last week’s defeat by Connacht has stung the Munster squad badly with Foley stressing the team chosen to do a job in the Welsh hotbed should “give an account of itself that is worthy of the jersey”.
Even though it is a long way from a full-strength side, you get the distinct feeling any player who comes up short can forget about a starting place against the Tigers six days later.
Niall (hooker), and Rory (centre) Scannell become the first brothers to start together for Munster in the PRO12 with Denis Hurley resuming the captaincy as Rory’s midfield partner. Also lining out from the kick-off are Dave Kilcoyne, John Ryan, Dave Foley, Shane Buckley, David Johnston, Simon Zebo, Dave O’Callaghan and Ronan O’Mahony.
Argentine Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino switches from wing to full-back, New Zealander Tyler Bleyendaal has successfully rehabbed a quad strain and is included among the replacements and the likelihood is that another Kiwi, Francis Zaili, will return to training next week. Anthony Foley emphasised in his 2008 autobiography the significance of the part played by his Munster U20 coach Dan Mooney in forming his own playing career: “His big thing was bitterness and pride. Be proud of where you come from, but have a bit of a dog in you, a chip on your shoulder.”
Foley was never short in that regard in his own day and this week another member of the clan, although unrelated, Dave Foley from Clonmel, echoed those sentiments as he discussed his present status in the Munster squad. Having looked a ready-made replacement for the departing Paul O’Connell in the second-row, he has found himself benched in favour of Australian veteran Mark Chisholm more often than he would have liked.
“When I heard Mark was coming first, they were straight up about it”, he said. “They needed more locks. There were only really three senior lads, myself, Donnacha Ryan and Billy Holland. When Munster signed a player, they were going to sign a good lock and they were right to do it.
“But now I am not playing, I am pretty bitter about it and that is a big driving force for me. I am 27 and I don’t have a huge amount of time left. There are locks who play up until they are 40 but I don’t know if I really want to do that. I have the best three to four years of my career coming up and I think it is in my power. If it was not in my power, that would be hard to take. I am just going to play my game and see where that takes me.”
Munster travel to Rodney Parade expecting an “attritional” encounter, to use Anthony Foley’s word and it is ever thus at this venue. The Dragons may be 10th of 12 in the PRO12 table but showed what they are capable of running Castres to 32-29 in an away European Challenge Cup tie a couple of weeks ago. Munster, however, will take confidence from knowing they have lost only one of their last nine games against the Welsh region — 30-24 in 2013. It would be unwise to expect such a high-scoring affair on this occasion.
C Meyer; T Prydie, A Hughes, A Warren, A Hewitt; D Jones, Sl Pretorius; B Stankovich, TRhys Thomas capt, B Harris, M Screech, R Landman, L Evans, N Cudd, T Faletau.
R Buckley, P Price, L Fairbrother, C Hill, E Jackson, C Davies, J Tovey, R Wardle.
L Gonzalez Amorosino; R O’Mahony, D Johnston, D Hurley capt, S Zebo; R Scannell, T O’Leary; D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan, D Foley, M Chisholm, S Buckley, D O’Callaghan, R Copeland.
K O’Byrne, J Cronin, M Sagario, B Holland, J Coghlan, C Sheridan, T Bleyendaal, G Van den Heever.
G Conway (IRFU).
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