Keith Wood is likely to miss his much anticipated return to Thomond Park and what would have been another curious renewal of both hostilities and friendships with his erstwhile Munster team-mates in their European Cup match on January 5th. The Irish captain tore a calf muscle in Harlequins' Cup win over Sale last Saturday and expects to be sidelined for four weeks.
Hence, Wood will be ruled out of Harlequins' next couple of league matches and their concluding Heineken Cup pool matches against Munster and Bridgend, though he should be back for the English Cup quarter-final at home to Leicester, a repeat of last season's semi-final meeting which was instrumental in turning Quins' season around.
Once more a domestic cup clash with Leicester has assumed vital importance in that it may again salvage Quins' season and Wood concedes it's an altogether bigger game for his club than the European clash with his Munster mates, even if that game had been etched indelibly in his mental diary of the season.
"It would be a terrible shame to miss it," admitted Wood, who lost at Thomond Park on a previous visit there with Quins 23-16 in the Heineken Cup four seasons ago. Running scared? "Yep, that's it, my yellowish nature."
Wood's probable absence would take away some of the game's lustre but even so the tie became another Thomond Park sell-out within hours of the tickets going on sale last Monday, and by lunchtime on Tuesday at Musgrave Park.
Even Munster players and management alike have been taken aback by this expression of loyalty, coming so soon after the Celtic League final defeat to Leinster. "It's just incredible, really," admitted number eight Anthony Foley. "To see the lengths these people will go to is unreal. We disappointed them and ourselves last weekend and we were down about that. But they've sent out the clearest message of support, maybe saying, 'don't worry about it lads', and that has lifted us all and we are really grateful."
Further down the line, Wood this week agreed to a one-year extension to his existing contract at the Stoop, which will now expire at the end of the 2002-3 season. With the World Cup to follow that autumn it sends out a signal that the Irish captain will see out the rest of his club career in London and perhaps retire after the World Cup. Or at any rate, it gives him that option.
"I've no plans (beyond the World Cup) at this stage. You never know. I'm looking to have a situation in which I can prepare as well as I possibly can for the World Cup, without taking anything for granted. Once the World Cup is over I will then look at what I want to do." His new forwards coach with Ireland will, of course, be Niall O'Donovan after the former Shannon coach and current Munster assistant coach agreed to take up a position on the national management ticket and in the process, like Declan Kidney, he will sever a five-year link with Munster at the end of the season.
"It's like everything else, it has its good parts and its bad parts. To leave the scene in Munster is a hard thing to do. It's a huge challenge and a huge honour (becoming Irish forwards coach) and one I'm looking forward to now that I've made the decision."
O'Donovan had been widely touted as the natural heir to Declan Kidney as Munster coach but he felt the role of Irish forwards coach demanded his full attention. "I felt there would be a bit of a conflict as well there and there would also be some crossing over at the start of next season with the World Cup qualifiers and the Celtic League." Nevertheless, O'Donovan's promotion leaves something of a vacuum in Munster with no obvious replacement. It will be remembered that the IRFU had originally offered the Munster job to John Bevan of Wales and then when he had a change of heart they approached Andy Leslie but he rejected the offer.
Kidney and O'Donovan having done such an outstanding job, however, the Union will assuredly prefer to appoint indigenous coaches. The trouble is those who have cut their teeth in the club game, such as Brian Hickey (a dentist with his own practice) and Pat Murray, mightn't be so inclined to risk their careers to coach.
Even another strong dark horse for the job, Michael Bradley, mightn't be so inclined either, while Shannon's Geoff Moylan has impressed but is a relative rookie. Fast-tracking Mick Galwey (who has the obvious makings of a fine coach) and, say, Killian Keane into the coaching set-up would be an attractive option but neither have expressed an interest in hanging up their boots just yet.
Meanwhile, the IRFU chief executive, Philip Browne, yesterday confirmed that the full IRFU Committee unanimously endorsed a report by the six-man sub-committee which decided to remove Warren Gatland as Irish coach. It had been thought that some members of the full 22-man committee would have questioned whether the sub-committee, chaired by former Union president Eddie Coleman, had the authority to present Gatland's removal as a fait accompli long after making the decision and acting upon it, but apparently not, according to Browne.
"There was some concern over the timing," admitted Browne, in reference to the sequence of events which transpired last month in which the full committee members were not even informed of Gatland's removal the day after he had been let go.
