Simon Zebo to feature for Munster against Dragons

Simon Zebo is set to return to action for Munster in Saturday night’s Guinness Pro12 clash with the Newport Gwent Dragons at Thomond Park. Zebo has been released back to the province by Ireland coach Joe Schmidt having had only 15 minutes of action against England last Saturday.

Tommy O’Donnell and Dave Foley, who travelled to Twickenham with the Irish squad as additional back-up, were released to make a late dash to Treviso for Sunday’s Pro 12 game and they will also be available for the Dragons visit.

Head coach Anthony Foley hinted another member of the Irish squad, loose head prop James Cronin, may also be available having recovered from hamstring trouble.

There is good news, too, of tight-head prop Stephen Archer, who has missed most of the season with a knee injury but has shown no ill effects from a few all-out contact sessions.

Disappointingly, Denis Hurley has suffered a recurrence of his calf injury and will be out for another four to six weeks. Tomás O’Leary continues to be troubled by a groin strain and will also miss the Dragons game.

“We have Simon, Dave and Tommy back”, reported Foley after yesterday’s squad session at UL.

“Jamesie Cronin was doing rehab running today and is a lot further down the road than we would have thought last week. We have another training session this week and we’ll see how he goes there.

“There’s a bug going around and Ian Keatley has it at the moment and he missed out on training today. If he doesn’t make it, we have Rory (Scannell) who can play ten and Johnny Holland who played with Cork Con last week-end.

“We felt it more important for him to have a game rather than travelling to Italy with us. I haven’t seen the Con match but I have seen the total (26) behind his name and it’s quite impressive. He’s a fella we probably need to take a bit more time with and as for Keats, the doctor tells me it’s a 24-48 hour thing and we’ll let it take its course and see where he’s at.

“Any time we have taken him out of the front line, it’s almost a crisis in terms of... we’re blaming Keatley for this and that but you have to look at the volume he’s going through. He’s a good player for us and we’re a better team when he’s around.”

Foley doesn’t need reminding that Dragons handed out a 22-7 beating to Munster at Rodney Parade last September.

He said: “They have been competitive across Europe and have knock-outs to look forward to. They have also taken a lot of scalps this year in the Pro12, they’re not as affected as other teams by international calls so they are a very tight unit with very few changes to their starting XV”.