Munster coaching team to arrive at weekend

Munster's new era starts in earnest next week when Rob Penney and his backs coach Simon Mannix oversee their first training sessions, writes Conor George of the Evening Echo.

The New Zealand duo arrive in Ireland over the weekend and will meet the majority of their new squad on Monday morning — whether in Cork or Limerick is unknown as yet.

Everyone except those who were on international duty over the summer are in camp.

In a fortnight’s time they will have their full complement of players available with those Ireland internationals (senior and U20) due back for pre-season training on July 24.

Penney has signed a two-year contract with Munster and succeeds Tony McGahan as Munster’s fourth head coach of the professional era — Declan Kidney (twice), Alan Gaffney and McGahan have gone before him.

Mannix was most recently coaching at Racing Metro, who Munster face in this year’s Heineken Cup.

Munster are also due to announce if and where they will base their future single base.

The choice is between University of Limerick, Limerick Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology being the choices with CIT favoured.