ONCE AGAIN the provincial coaches must preside over the precarious practice of personnel juggling ahead of the weekend’s fixtures in the Magners League. Munster’s Tony McGahan has opted to rest his captain Paul O’Connell, John Hayes, David Wallace, Tomás O’Leary and Keith Earls for Friday night’s visit of the Glasgow Warriors.
It will be interesting to note whether visiting coach, Sean Lineen, will pursue a similar policy or whether an Irish side is going to get a second dose of the Killer Bs, amongst others – Kelly Brown, John Barclay and Johnnie Beattie – within a week.
Glasgow’s need is greater in terms of the current league table, a temptation that Lineen may not be able to resist.
McGahan is able to call upon Donncha O’Callaghan, Ronan O’Gara and Tony Buckley who were involved with Ireland at Croke Park last weekend. Billy Holland, who has been making excellent strides in recent matches, will have a scan in Cork on the knee he twisted in the game against the Scarlets but has been included in an extended panel.
There was better news for replacement scrumhalf Duncan Williams as his ankle suffered bruising rather than anything more serious.
Former Ireland underage international Conor Murray is the third scrumhalf named in the squad; Peter Stringer should start.
The Munster team will also be bolstered by the return of Lifeimi Mafi after he served a mandatory one-game suspension on the basis of picking up three yellow cards in the tournament this season.
Brian McLaughlin hasn’t revealed his hand ahead of Friday night’s game against the Cardiff Blues by naming a 30-man squad that includes Stephen Ferris and Rory Best, both of whom started for Ireland against Scotland at Croke Park.
Best is one of three hookers included – Nigel Brady and Andy Kyriacou are the others – while there is enough backrow cover if McLaughlin decides to rest Ferris; the latter has been dogged by one or two niggling injuries despite his presence in the Six Nations tournament. Michael Heaney, who came on at scrumhalf for Ireland Under 20s in their victory over Scotland at Dubarry Park, is named in the absence of the unfortunate Cillian Willis, who broke his leg recently while playing for the Ravens against Connacht.
Ireland internationals Paddy Wallace, Tom Court, and Andrew Trimble, plus Scottish winger Simon Danielli, have all been included.
MUNSTER SQUAD: M Horan, T Buckley, D Ryan, D Fogarty, D Varley, J Brugnaut, M O’Driscoll, D O’Callaghan, B Holland, N Ronan, A Quinlan, T O’Donnell, N Williams, J Coughlan, D Williams, C Murray, P Stringer, P Warwick, R O’Gara, S Deasy, J de Villiers, L Mafi, T Gleeson, I Dowling, D Howlett, D Hurley.
ULSTER SQUAD: J Smith, P Marshall, S Danielli, D Cave, I Whitten, T Nagusa, I Humphreys, N O’Connor, I Boss, P Wallace, A Trimble, M Heaney, J Shiels, M McCrea, D Fitzpatrick, B Young, BJ Botha, N Brady, A Kyriacou, E O’Donoghue, D Tuohy, R Caldwell, C Henry, T Court, S Ferris, R Diack, TJ Anderson, N McComb, D Pollock, R Best.
