Munster hopeful Crowley and Ahern will be fit for Edinburgh clash

This weekend’s Round 17 match has come too soon for back-rower John Hodnett who has missed the last two games with a leg injury sustained on Munster’s winning two-game tour to South Africa.

HOPEFUL: Munster are cautiously hopeful both Jack Crowley and Tom Ahern will pass fit to face Edinburgh in their penultimate URC league fixture in the Scottish capital on Friday night.

Munster are cautiously hopeful both Jack Crowley and Tom Ahern will pass fit to face Edinburgh in their penultimate URC league fixture in the Scottish capital on Friday night.

Fly-half Crowley and replacement second-row Ahern were each prominent in last Saturday’s Thomond Park bonus-point victory over Connacht, which stretched Munster’s current winning run to seven games and put the defending positions in a strong position to secure at least a home quarter-final in next month’s end of season play-offs.

Yet the 47-12 win came at a cost, Crowley forced off on 59 minutes with a foot injury after kicking three conversions from three while Ahern came off the bench and scored Munster’s sixth of seven tries that night but failed to finish the game due to a shoulder problem.

Both players were on Monday labelled as doubts for this Friday’s trip to Hive Stadium with their availability to be determined later in the week but on Tuesday assistant coach delivered an upbeat assessment of their chances of travelling to Edinburgh on Thursday.

“They got through most of training today, and then we're just going to see how they pull up, and react to the training they've done,” forwards coach Kyriacou said.

“They got through a good body of work, so fingers crossed they'll come through and be ready for the game. We hope so, you never know, but we hope so.” 

This weekend’s Round 17 match has come too soon, however, for back-rower John Hodnett, who has missed the last two games with a leg injury sustained on Munster’s winning two-game tour to South Africa. Head coach Graham Rowntree had said ahead of the Connacht game that the openside flanker could possibly be fit again to face Edinburgh but seven days on Kyriacou said Hodnett may be targeting the final round of the regular season with a comeback in the home derby against Ulster on June 1.

“He's progressing really well. He'll keep reintegrating himself back into his return to play stuff that he's been doing with Dave Power and the physio department, and hopefully we'll see him back on the grass with us, if not next week, then the week after.” 

While third-placed Munster have established some daylight between themselves in the top four and the chasing pack, eight points clear of the fifth-placed Stormers, the management also recognised that in Edinburgh, seventh, and Ulster in sixth, their two remaining opponents are scrambling to secure their own play-off berths, particularly with an eight-placed finish no longer guaranteed for the quarters with the Sharks reaching the European Challenge Cup final and threatening to take the final Champions Cup qualification spot for next season if they prevail against Gloucester a week on Friday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Kyriacou acknowledged tough challenges await.

“They're like mini finals every week now, with the league being so tight, and the Sharks being alive in Europe as well, to potentially gain that European slot.

“That's intensified things more, if it could be possible. We're pretty calm and measured about it, we've not really looked past the game we have in front of us, and this week is Edinburgh and we know the threats they've got and what they're going to come with.

“It's a big challenge going over there and performing, so we've addressed a few bits that we needed to sort out from Connacht, and we're looking forward to the challenge that we're going to face this weekend on Friday night.”