The one-time Australian sevens and former Eastern Suburbs openside Tim McGann is likely to feature for Munster this Saturday when they entertain the Border Reivers in the Magners Celtic League.
Still without their frontline 13 Irish players, they may be given special dispensation to bring captain Anthony Foley back this weekend as he didn't travel to Spala in Poland for pre-season training for personal reasons.
In any event, Foley along with Alan Quinlan, Mick O'Driscoll and Anthony Horgan will be made available the following Friday when Munster travel to Glasgow. They are then idle in round four, before finally returning to something like full-strength at home to Ulster on September 30th.
In the meantime, Munster will continue their search to expand their options at hooker and midfield - injuries to Jerry Flannery, Denis Fogarty, Trevor Halstead and Barry Murphy and the departures of Mike Mullins, Rob Henderson and Gary Connolly making them their most problematical positions - in an A fixture against Leinster in Roscrea today.
The European champions have been relatively quiet in the summer transfer market, save for the acquisition of Chris Wyatt, Eoghan Hickey and, on a six-month contract, McGann. "He's been described as a sevens specialist," says manager Jerry Holland, but we see him as a specialist seven."
They are also looking at midfield options from Samoa and Tonga in training and in these A games. "We haven't made many high-profile signings but we'd be of the view that we should develop our own, and that's why the likes of Barry Murphy, Ian Dowling, Jeremy Manning and Denis Fogarty now have full-time contracts. We were under the misapprehension that we should bring through your own," he added dryly.
All four Irish provinces are in action this weekend in the Celtic League with Leinster, runners-up by one point to Ulster last season, entering the fray on Friday after an idle weekend. They'll start where they finished last season, away to Edinburgh, and are liable to field a much-changed outfit featuring four or five of their summer recruits and perhaps one or two of the younger tyros who've impressed in pre-season.
Aside from the half-dozen Irish squad members who will be absent until about round five of the league, coach Michael Cheika will have a fairly full hand from which to announce a squad today. The side is likely to be similar to the team which started their last pre-season friendly at home to London Irish, which will mean competitive starts for Trevor Hogan and Owen Finegan in the secondrow as well as Stephen Keogh in the backrow alongside Niall Ronan and Jamie Heaslip.
Chris Whitaker looks set to make his competitive debut for Leinster as well in partnering Felipe Contepomi at half-back, with Cheika's most difficult selections concerning which three to perm for the outside-back positions from Luke Fitzgerald, Ross McCarron, Robert Kearney and Gary Brown. Christian Warner, Kieran Lewis and Mick Berne are vying for the midfield slots.
Lewis is likely to make his 50th competitive start for the province, a revealing statistic bearing in mind how much injuries have interrupted his career and how the presence of so many galacticos has often led to speculation that he should move province.
As with the backs, similarly Cheika has a few options in the frontrow in choosing from Reggie Corrigan, Bernard Jackman, Brian Blaney, Harry Vermaas, Ronnie McCormack and Will Green. An impressive conveyor belt of talent seems to be coming through the underage and back-up ranks, judging by the success of their under-20s in beating Munster 57-8 in Donnybrook last Friday. Greg Lynch and David Lynagh's team take on Ulster, themselves 27-6 winners away to Connacht in round one, at Ravenhill this Friday.
Leinster's opponents yesterday appointed former Cardiff, Pontypridd and Celtic Warriors coach Lynn Howells as their new head coach from September 17th.
Connacht coach Michael Bradley and his assistant Eric Elwood have left a vacancy in their 22-man squad for Friday night's League game against Ospreys at the Sportsground (6.30 pm); the first of six successive home games.
Winger Darren Yapp is doubtful with a leg injury and it remains to be seen if he will be fit to participate while Ronan Loughney, Ray Hogan, David McGowan, Joe Merrigan and Ted Robinson are sidelined.
CONNACHT SQUAD (v Border Reivers): J Fogarty, M Diffley, S Knoop, B Wilkinson, A Flavin, A Farley, M Swift, D Gannon, B O'Connor, C Rigney, J Muldoon, M Lacey, P Warwick, M McHugh, T Tierney, C Keane, C McPhillips, D Riordan, M Mostyn, G Williams, K Matthews, AN Other.
