Michael Milne and Lee Barron available for selection against Bulls as they join Munster on loan

Michael Milne and Lee Barron have linked up with Munster after completing loan moves from Leinster ahead of their permanent summer interprovincial switches.

New arrivals Michael Milne and Lee Barron could be in line for Munster debuts at home to the Bulls this Saturday after completing loan moves from Leinster ahead of their permanent summer interprovincial switches.

Interim Munster head coach Ian Costello accelerated the moves south for the loosehead prop and hooker following recent injuries to Jeremy Loughman and Diarmuid Barron.

Prop Loughman injured a hamstring just 12 minutes into the Champions Cup Round of 16 victory at La Rochelle 10 days ago while hooker Diarmuid Barron sustained a shoulder/arm problem before half-time of last Saturday’s quarter-final defeat at Bordeaux-Bègles.

The Leinster front-rowers arrived in Limerick on Monday and trained fully for the first time on Tuesday with Costello confirming their availability for the URC clash with the Bulls at Thomond Park this Saturday.

Back-rowers John Hodnett (toe) and Gavin Coombes (ankle), as well as wing Calvin Nash (ankle) are all doubtful for the Round 15 tie against the South Africans with the latter two set for scans this week before a final decision is made on their availability on Thursday. The interim head coach suggested Munster would likely not risk any of them in favour of handing game time to other squad members following two physical away ties in France and with another tough fixture coming up on home soil this weekend.

“We don’t think of any of them are going to be long-term, which is the good news,” Costello said. “Just out of the medical meeting now, but probably unlikely the four of them will be available for this week.

“We could maybe squeeze one or two through if we had to but we’ve got some really good opportunities to freshen up guys, freshen up the squad with guys who’ve been just outside it lately, that are chomping at the bit.

“So yeah, we’re still going to have a really strong squad for the weekend and some of those guys will come back the following Friday against Cardiff.” 

Milne and Barron would not be eligible to face Leinster should Munster draw their interprovincial rivals in the URC play-offs under the terms of the loan agreement but the Munster boss said: “Both available (this weekend). They both only came in yesterday, met them yesterday for the first time since we signed them, really. We keep in touch regularly but they came down and moved to Limerick yesterday.

“Leinster were very supportive in facilitating that and the club also had to make that happen. So the right people were able to support it. Mikey will cover Jezza’s injury, Jeremy Loughman, because he’s out potentially to the end of the season.

“Diarmuid Barron is likely only out for a short period but still it was a really good opportunity to get Lee in for having a really aggressive run for the rest of the season and make sure we’re in the play-offs.” 

The 47-29 defeat at Stade Chaban-Delmas last weekend was highlighted by Munster inefficiency at both the lineout and in possession, with forwards coaching consultant Alex Codling absent from his secondment having returned to the Ireland Women’s team for their Six Nations home match on the same day against England in Cork.

Codling has been providing temporary forwards coaching cover since last November when Andi Kyriacou departed shortly after head coach Graham Rowntree but Costello said Munster have lined up a permanent replacement for next season.

“We’ve all those plans in place, just not in a position to announce them just yet. And we have had them for a little while.

“With Alex, we were always aware that he was always on secondment, in a dual role. They’re in a critical situation with the Six Nations, he’s been in and out and (academy forwards coach) Tommy O’Donnell has done a good job here.

“For the weekend, we were really disappointed with it but I’ve seen the work that they’ve done this morning, we had a really good, honest review, trained really well and hopefully we’ll correct that for Saturday.”