Van Graan hoping for timely return of key players

Johann van Graan is hoping he will be able to call on reinforcements for Munster’s Guinness PRO14 semi-final at Leinster in 12 days with the return of key players from injury.

The Munster head coach described Leinster as the best team in Europe and makes them favourites to win Saturday’s Champions Cup final in Bilbao against Racing 92, the side that ended his own club’s European dream a fortnight ago.

He also knows his side will have to improve on their quarter-final performance in scraping past Edinburgh if Munster are to make a successful bid for victory at the RDS seven days later and the return of long-term absentees such as Springbok centre Jaco Taute for the trip to Dublin can only help that effort.