Van Graan in the dark over Carbery and Bleyendaal returns

All those players who knew the man well and the more recent arrivals who have been hearing of his many outstanding qualities attended the funeral of former Munster CEO Garrett Fitzgerald in Cork on Monday.

Van Graan in the dark over Carbery and Bleyendaal returns

All those players who knew the man well and the more recent arrivals who have been hearing of his many outstanding qualities attended the funeral of former Munster CEO Garrett Fitzgerald in Cork on Monday.

Having paid their respects, they were back to their normal pre-match preparations in Limerick yesterday with their sights set on the next Guinness PRO14 outing against Zebre in Milan on Friday night (7.35pm).

“He was a great man,” said Johann van Graan of his former boss.

“Obviously it was an emotional day on Monday. All of Munster went to the church to make sure we paid the respect that Garrett deserved and, on top of it all, to make sure Áine and the kids were as good as they can be.”

The Munster coach was unable to nail down return dates for out-half stars Joey Carbery and Tyler Bleyendaal as they continue their return from a wrist ligament and neck injuries, respectively.

The coach said: “Tyler has started to do some running but he still has a bit of time to go. Tyler’s progressing but we won’t put him back into rugby until he has been medically cleared.

Joey has gone for an update at the back end of last week and we’re still waiting for news on him. I’ll be having a good look at his development over the next few weeks.

“Like every squad across the world, you’ll have guys coming into your squad whether it’s from the academy or from the outside — or you’ll have some guys who will move on. I won’t speak about names this stage but there are guys who will leave the club. They’re all here until the end of the season and we’ll have a few new joining us at the beginning of next season. That’s the beauty of sport.”

For now though van Graan’s focus is on Zebre.

“We have a game on Friday night to prepare for, so that’s all our focus today and for the rest of the week. Last season we won there but it’s a pretty difficult venue. They lost 3-0 to Leinster but could have easily won that game.

“I think the league is going to stay very tight until Round 21. Everyone will have some ups and downs over the next 10 rounds. Our last three games of the season are against the Scarlets away, Edinburgh away, and Connacht at home. Every week is different.

“This part of the season is about your squad. Some guys who played well against the Kings (last Friday night) won’t play this weekend, not because of performance, but you have to develop your squad, it’s important that some guys from the academy will get a chance again this weekend.

Every point is important, so you have to balance all of that and then certain weeks you get guys from the national team back and other weeks you don’t and then you’ve got your injuries to look at.

Flanker Tommy O’Donnell took part in the Munster warm-up session at Musgrave Park on Friday night and Darren Sweetnam lined out of Cork Con in their AIL win at Ballynahinch and so are likely to figure this week.

“We are continuing to give most of our academy and fringe guys time to play. Tommy is raring to go and Sweets came through about 50 minutes and both are available for Zebre.”

Ronan O'Gara: 'I never looked upon him as the CEO. He was Garrett'

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