Hanrahan and Wood handed chance as Munster prepares for Crowley absence
Munster No 10 Tom Wood. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho
JJ Hanrahan and Tom Wood will lead the way for Munster from number 10 with a half each against La Rochelle at Stade Marcel-Deflandre on Friday night as Clayton McMillan prepares for Jack Crowley’s expected four-month injury absence.
With Ronan O’Gara’s hosts just nine days out from the start of their new Top 14 campaign at home to Toulouse on Sunday week, Munster’s first run of their pre-season comes with the head coach primarily looking to get minutes into all of his available players and he has named a different 15 players for each half.
Senior fly-half Hanrahan begins the game looking to build on the solid form he delivered at the tail end of last season when Crowley was first sidelined with a mysterious leg condition, now diagnosed as a lower limb vascular injury.
And with Munster revealing on Thursday that the Ireland playmaker will be rehabilitating until the New Year, and that new arrival Will Harrison, the former Waratahs fly-half/full-back signed from Japan’s Kinetsu Liners on a one-year deal, is recovering from a knee injury, that means academy and Ireland Under-20 star Tom Wood has been handed the reins for the second 40 minutes against La Rochelle having made his senior debut last January.
Munster have also welcomed another Ireland U20 fly-half, UCC’s Charlie O’Shea into the academy in pre-season and speaking to the on Thursday at Munster’s spa hotel on nearby Île de Ré, the head coach said while Crowley would be missed, he was comfortable with the fly-half cover available to him ahead of the URC kick-off at home to Glasgow Warriors on September 26.
“We think in Jack's absence at the back end of last year, I think JJ really took charge and recognised that in Jack's absence we needed him to do that. And I think he did a great job. He's an experienced campaigner and he's still got plenty of runs left on the board.
“Tom, at the back end of last year, was involved with the Irish Under-20s. We didn't really want to be upsetting the apple cart around that so he didn't probably get as much opportunity at the back end of the season because of those circumstances. But I think we signalled pretty early on around how excited we are about his potential.
“And to be perfectly honest, a lot of people have talked about Charlie O'Shea as being a very good 10, a different profile of player. But I hadn't really seen him play until the 20s and I thought, again, when Tom was out through injury, Charlie was one of the best (Ireland U20) players. He certainly made a good impression in the pre-season at training.
“And then with Will there, we know we've got an experienced campaigner that can play across multiple positions. We'd love to have Jack available for us but the opportunity is now that we can accelerate the growth of a couple of young guys. And we've got a couple of older statesmen there to lead us around the park when we need them to.”
Edwin Edogbo, Tom Farrell (both shoulder) and Calvin Nash (hamstring) underwent successful surgeries in the summer having each sustained their injuries in that URC home win over Ulster and Munster said all three were expected to return to action during the opening block of URC fixtures.
Back-rower Ruadhán Quinn has undergone surgery on an ankle injury this month and is expected back for the early rounds of the season while South Africa-capped hooker Marnus van der Merwe, signed from URC rivals Scarlets, arrived from west Wales with a calf injury sustained at the end of last season but has begun reintegrating into team training and is targeting an internal 15 v 15 squad game in a fortnight for his comeback, ahead of a home friendly against Leicester Tigers at Cork’s Virgin Media Park on Friday, September 18.
Incoming props Keiran Brookes and Jack Aungier will both make their first outings as the alternating tightheads and McMillan is looking forward to the test awaiting his 33-man squad against a Top 14 big gun in the final stages of their pre-season preparations.
“It's the first hit-out. We want to give more people an opportunity to play against quality opposition in what I understand will be near to a sold-out stadium, which is pretty rare for a pre-season game.
“It will be great for a number of guys to feel that. Ultimately, for us, it's given all of those that have put the yards in over the summer pre-season the chance to go out and show us what they've got.
“It's what we think are two even sides, a mix of some academy guys that have done well through pre-season and some of the new signings that have come in. And a lot of the familiar faces, so it's good.”
Ben O’Connor; Diarmuid Kilgallen, Gordon Wood, Alex Nankivell, Shay McCarthy; JJ Hanrahan, Ben O’Donovan; Michael Milne, Lee Barron, Michael Ala’alatoa/Kieran Brookes; Conor Kennelly, Fineen Wycherley; Seán Edogbo, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Danny Sheahan, Emmet Calvey, Ronan Foxe.
Mike Haley; Hubert Gilvarry, Seán O’Brien, Dan Kelly, Shay McCarthy; Tom Wood, Ethan Coughlan; Mark Donnelly, Diarmuid Barron, Kieran Brookes/Jack Aungier; Conor Ryan, Evan O’Connell; Jack O’Donoghue, Alex Kendellen, Brian Gleeson.
Danny Sheahan, Emmet Calvey, Ronan Foxe.
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