LEINSTER COACH Joe Schmidt is planning for rugby life without Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Horgan ahead of the province’s opening match against Montpellier in the Stade de la Mosson on Saturday as they begin the defence of the Heineken Cup which they won so memorably last season.

O’Driscoll is expected to be out for up to six months after his shoulder surgery, while Horgan had more surgery in Sweden on a knee problem and may be out for four months.

The New Zealander knew the likely prognosis, but must now address the reality.

“It (O’Driscoll’s surgery) has been pending for a while, but we have pursued the best advice to try and make sure that what is going to be done is the best and most beneficial course of action,” Schmidt said. “Brian is going to have some surgery and, in the meantime, we’ll try and keep ticking over and, hopefully, he’ll have something to come back to in the end.

“Shane was very positive this morning, felt that the operation had gone very well in Sweden and he is hopeful a rehabilitation period will see him right as well. I don’t know the length of that at the moment, but he was throwing around a ballpark figure of maybe four months. I don’t know whether that is accurate or not; particularly with a month maybe tacked on to the front (prognosis).”

Schmidt conceded that in O’Driscoll’s case there was initially a glimmer of hope he might not require surgery, but that evaporated the longer the World Cup journey continued.

“There was a period during the World Cup where he was feeling pretty good and that he had bounced back not too badly. He hadn’t done a lot of collision stuff for a while and there was a hope that that would be sufficient to allow things to settle down and that he’d be able to go forward from there.

“But when the big games came and the bigger collisions came, it was back to square one a little bit and that wasn’t good news at all.”

The Leinster coach confirmed O’Driscoll is likely to again fulfil the role of water-boy for Saturday’s game against Montpellier; it’s something the player has done before, most recently in last Friday night’s victory over Munster.

Fergus McFadden deputised for the Irish captain in the number 13 jersey and it’s a strong option for this weekend’s trip to France. Schmidt pointed out he would sift through the options in terms of personnel over the next few days.

“We played without Brian last week and we had the combination of Fergus McFadden and Gordon D’Arcy in the midfield, so to continue that is one option. To put Eoin O’Malley in there, who has played centre more often for us, is another option, or even to push Luke (Fitzgerald) back in there. Dave Kearney or Fionn Carr could come on to the wing.

“So they are just some of the kind of options we have, that we will try to nut out over the next few days at training; we’ll see just who’s up and on form.”

Meanwhile, the unfortunate Munster and Ireland wing Keith Earls will be out for four to six weeks after a scan confirmed he had suffered medial knee ligament damage in last weekend’s defeat to Leinster. He is likely to miss Munster’s first four matches in the Heineken Cup, two this month and two more in December.

Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin said he was “hopeful” that, following medical assessment of Johann Muller (arm), Stephen Ferris (ankle) and Tom Court, all three could be fit for Saturday’s Heineken Cup match against Clermont Auvergne at Ravenhill.

Muller injured his lower right arm in the dying seconds of Saturday night’s 22-3 Pro 12 win over Connacht. At the time it was feared he had suffered a break.

Ferris hobbled off on the hour, having turned an ankle, while Court was withdrawn eight minutes later with a knee injury.

“I think Johann will be okay,” McLaughlin said. “It’s looking more and more that it’s just superficial, soft tissue.

“It was decided to leave Stevie until the swelling dissipates so they can get a proper look at it. It’s the same with Tom. He has tweaked a knee and we’ll know better tomorrow.”

Connacht have signed former Leinster centre Kyle Tonetti on a short-term loan to help ease their midfield injury woes. Tonetti, who is one of five centres in Sale, is unlikely to feature in Connachts Heineken Cup debut against Harlequins on Friday.

Irish derby a record draw for TG4

LAST Friday’s live coverage of the RaboDirect Pro 12 match between Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium pulled in TG4’s highest audience for a rugby match. The official Nielsen figures report that 635,000 people tuned in to some of the coverage, with the audience peaking at 338,000 viewers towards the end of the game. An average of 183,000 viewers watched the entire match.