McGahan Wary Of Italian Job

While his Video Analyst George Murray won’t have been able to provide him with much material to work with, Tony McGahan is extremely wary of the challenge that will be provided by newcomers Aironi Rugby on Saturday.

Speaking to media today in UL, McGahan admitted that he didn't know a lot about his opponents but was certain, “they'd be coming to Munster to make a really strong statement about their approach to the competition. They've recruited well, brought in a lot of experienced players. There's probably not a lot of pressure on them to get a result, but Munster away first up, they've nothing to lose, they can make a really strong statement to the rest of the opposition where they're going to be for this year.”

As a newly formed franchise McGahan won't have had much if any video footage of the Italians, “We've seen footage of their game last week”  – against Northampton -” but really our focus at this stage has to be on ourselves and what we're going to bring. That's the most important thing for us going into every game but more importantly at this stage of the season. We need to understand ourselves and how we're progressing before we can worry what the opposition is going to throw at us.”

Of course the visitors will have a certain insider knowledge provided by Nick Williams, but McGahan admitted there had been no recent contact,  “No, haven't been in touch. I doubt he would be giving up any secrets on line-out calls or how they're going to call.

“We'll catch up before the game and say G'day because he was a very popular member of the squad when he was here, has a lot of good friends here. We  wish him the best not only on Saturday evening but for the rest of his time with Aironi  because he was an excellent person and one that we really enjoyed for his company and his rugby.”

“Nick'll be well versed in what we're doing. But I would imagine, with all their calls being in Italian, his concentration levels will be directed towards listening and understanding them rather than what we're doing.”

Munster Squad: D Hurley, F Jones, D Barnes, D Howlett, S Tuitupou, J Murphy, I Dowling, P Warwick, S Deasy, D Williams, P Stringer, W du Preez, Dave Ryan, M Horan, J Hayes, T Buckley, D Fogarty, D Varley, M O'Driscoll, I Nagle, B Holland, D Ryan, N Ronan, A Quinlan, P O'Mahony, T O'Donnell, D Leamy.