DFP Header Area

Share this MunsterRugby.ie page

Strong Munster Side For Dragons

5th April 2006 By Munster Rugby

Strong Munster Side For Dragons

Munster will travel to Wales at the weekend for the Celtic League encounter with Newport-Gwent Dragons, with a side that shows just three changes from the one that started against Perpignan

Munster will travel to Wales at the weekend for the Celtic League encounter with Newport-Gwent Dragons, with a side that shows just three changes from the one that started against Perpignan

Staying behind when the squad fly out from Shannon are Ronan O’Gara and Denis Leamy who picked up injuries in that game against Perpignan and Marcus Horan who suffered a calf injury in training on Tuesday.

In addition to that trio from the starting XV last weekend, Christian Cullen twinged a hamstring in training while Denis Fogarty sustained a hand injury ruling both of them out of the Dragons match.

Fogarty and Cullen are likely to be available for the Edinburgh game but Horan will not, management hoping to have the prop back in time for the Heineken Cup semi-final clash with Leinster.

Munster ( v Newport-Gwent Dragons). S Payne; J Kelly, T O’Leary, T Halstead, I Dowling; J Manning, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell; M O’Driscoll, D Wallace, A Foley capt.

Replacements: F Roche, E McGovern, S Keogh, J O’Sullivan, P Burke, M Mullins, R Henderson,

Meanwhile the Dragons have made four changes to the team that left Ulster with a losing bonus point a fortnight ago. Wing Gareth Wyatt has recovered from his stress fracture to his shin and comes in for Nathan Brew who switches to the other wing in place of Richard Fussell. The other changes are in the forwards which sees Welsh Internationals Ian Gough and Michael Owen return for Andrew Hall and Rhys Oakley respectively while Luke Charteris makes his first start of 2006 having recovered from his shoulder injury.

Dragons player Ceri Sweeney retains his place at inside centre after playing his first match for two months last time out when he faced Ulster and was back to his creative best. Looking ahead to Friday night s crucial game for the Men of Gwent Sweeney commented, Munster will no doubt be buoyed by their victory on the weekend over Perpignan which secured them a place in the Heineken Cup semi final. Having already played them three times this season we are more than familiar with one another. There is no doubt they are a class side and they have our full respect. They have internationals throughout their side and are a very difficult team to beat. However, we cannot afford to concentrate too heavily on them as we have our own objectives to fulfil which is to secure a place in next seasons Heineken Cup. As shown on the weekend it is a tremendous competition to be involved in, the rugby is of a high standard and games are of a test match intensity. We want to secure more of that for next season where we can mix it with the best on the European stage, however, to do that we need to start winning and move up the Celtic League table.

Share

DFP – Right Column – HalfPage

Tags

DFP – Right Column – MPU

Related News

The Munster team has been named for Saturday night's URC round 13 clash against Cardiff at Thomond Park (7.35pm). Match tickets are still available from...

X