RUGBY:ANOTHER WAR of attrition is promised on Saturday but, really, it couldn't come at a more inconvenient time for Ireland coach Declan Kidney as the Barbarians fixture on June 4th leads into successive weekends against the All Blacks, the Maoris and finally, the Wallabies.
There are so many players dropping like flies while others resemble patched up versions of themselves, Munster coach Tony McGahan resisted even announcing an extended squad yesterday. This could be interpreted as a ploy to keep Leinster guessing ahead of the latest instalment of this always epic collision but with Munster’s parallel focus this week on another new play-off competition – Sunday’s British and Irish Cup final against the Cornish Pirates (Live on Sky Sports at 6pm) – it would have been disingenuous to announce a squad that would certainly need altering today.
Not that anyone is whinging about the chance to lock horns again. There were no crutches or bandages on view yesterday and the mood seemed upbeat as players mingled with the media in the Sports Café on the University of Limerick campus.
For starters, forget about Paul O’Connell returning any time soon. It even remains a mystery to McGahan if his captain underwent surgery on his groin. “All I know is that he has been in hospital and that he’s getting out on Thursday. I haven’t heard anything about a procedure (so) it’s news to myself.”
Mick O’Driscoll pulled up in training but could yet be rolled out. With O’Connell and Leinster’s Leo Cullen in serious- looking trouble, the word is out: Ireland have a secondrow crisis.
Ian Dowling is definitely unavailable but Doug Howlett and Jerry Flannery could make it back, while Keith Earls’ groin may yet respond to intensive physio as happened before the Biarritz game.
The Moyross flyer has not trained properly since the Six Nations as Munster attempt to ease their valuable strike runner down the home strait of a marathon season.
“He doesn’t have the ability to train for a long period of time leading into games,” McGahan said. “After he played Scotland it was two weeks before he played the next game and then another two weeks before he played the next one and it will be two weeks leading up to the semi-final on Saturday. He’s got a small block of training time each week and we need to be very selective, so today he wasn’t available so he’ll have a bit of a run-out tomorrow and we’ll get a read on him for Thursday.”
Saturday at least provides a chance of redemption for the 30-0 thumping Munster received on their last visit to Ballsbridge in October. Only victory will maintain the high standards they have around these parts. “We haven’t shied away from the fact we have been inconsistent this season. We’ve had some excellent days out but at the same time, we’ve certainly let ourselves down with inconsistency across the park.
“We haven’t really been able to gel everything together. We’ve reached a semi-final in the Heineken Cup, we’re into a semi-final in the Magners League, and we’ve got a final with the A team at the weekend. Look, it’s been an okay season, but the real goal for us is to finish with silverware and we have to give ourselves every opportunity with 80 tough minutes on Saturday.”
The referee will be Nigel Owens, considered by many to be the best in the Northern Hemisphere, certainly the most consistent. The current state of officiating in the Magners League prompted Brian O’Driscoll to come into the RDS media room last Friday night and use his presence as a means to, hopefully, improve the lack of clarity from referees that both players and coaches feel is degrading the competition.
“I think that would be a fair point and that would be a well-shared point right across a lot of the stakeholders in the game at this point in time in the Magners League,” said McGahan.
“To have the competition go down to the final 10 minutes in two games to decide outcomes and semi-finalists and decide where the final is going to be played is a wonderful advertisement and I think it has been well documented the standard of players coming to the Magners League, the standard of sides in the Magners League, which have produced three semi-finalists last year and two semi-finalists this year and the Ospreys in the quarter-finals (of the Heineken Cup), are rising.
“The most important thing is to make sure the game itself is moving forward on the field with the way it is being officiated. I think everybody would appreciate some sort of consistency in that regard.”
