RUGBY NEWS ROUND-UP:AS EXPECTED, Perpignan prop Jerome Schuster has been called to answer for the flying head butt he landed on Munster's Denis Leamy in last Saturday's Heineken Cup tie at the Stade Aime Giral.
The independent judicial officer, Prof Lorne Crerar (Scotland), will hear the case on January 13th with television replays not doing Schuster much help as he was seen lashing out with the boot, head and then fist after Leamy cleaned him out of a ruck. The incident, on the touch judge’s recommendation, only merited a yellow card at the time. Leamy required medical attention moments after the incident but still completed the eight minutes.
Having rolled out the big guns since returning from international duty in November, Munster coach Tony McGahan has rested Leamy, captain Paul O’Connell and four other front liners ahead of Saturday’s Magners League encounter with Connacht at Thomond Park.
Tomás O’Leary, Keith Earls, John Hayes and Donncha O’Callaghan also get the week off while Jerry Flannery and Marcus Horan remain on the longer-term injury list. This provides an opportunity for players like fullback Felix Jones, who switched from Leinster in the summer, Nick Williams and probably a rare start for Tony Buckley at tighthead prop.
Perhaps keen to continue his recent revival in form, and having not overly featured for Ireland in November, Ronan O’Gara is retained in the squad and looks an obvious choice for captain.
Leinster fielded practically an academy line-up against the Dragons a fortnight ago so the IRFU monitoring of players does not hinder them this weekend for the visit of Ulster to the RDS. CJ van der Linde is out for a few weeks with calf trouble so Stan Wright is expected to come straight back into the frontrow.
Jonny Sexton’s recovery from a broken hand is progressing with the possibility of the outhalf being considered for the Connacht game on January 2nd. “I think Sexto could possibly be back for Connacht or Glasgow (January 8th), one of those games,” said backs coach Kurt McQuilkan yesterday.
As has become the way in this period of healthy rivalry in Irish rugby when a player or coach tends to get asked about an outstanding performance, like Leinster’s 39-7 win against the Scarlets, the emphasis tends to get shifted south, or north – depending on who is answering the question. “The boys did well but there’s also the fact that after watching Munster play on Sunday against a very good Perpignan side, it probably puts it in perspective for us,” said McQuilkin.
“Perhaps Scarlets weren’t at their best but you still can only play what’s in front of you and we went out and did that, and I guess from a defensive point of view we’re probably still a bit sore about conceding a try in each of the games. That’s something we can work on but generally the flow was good, there was some good movement. Our concentration levels were probably a lot better last weekend than the previous weekend so we’re happy in that regard, yeah.”
With very little to be critical of this week the focus switched to a rare occurrence in Irish rugby: Rob Kearney dropping high ball. The Lions fullback’s performance got classed as a “shocker” yesterday but the man is in a rare stratosphere of playing poorly yet still crossing for two tries. “He doesn’t have them very often. He’s the first guy to – whether he’s had a bad one or a good one, he’s the first guy to come in and go over his video, so there’s no problem with Kearns that way. He’s a pro. He knows what happened at the weekend and he’ll be out to rectify it, both on the training pitch and out on the park at the weekend.
“I don’t know what it was,” said McQuilkin. “I know he’s been talking to Alan Gaffney about his catching technique. And Alan was sending out messages during the game about little bits and pieces he could tidy up on . . . It was just one of those games but it’s out of his system now.”
