Munster Squad News

Other than the well documented cases, Munster coach Tony McGahan will be dealing from a full deck when he sits down to select his side for the RaboDirect PRO12 clash with Leinster in Dublin on Friday night.

Tomas O'Leary and Peter O'Mahony were both forced to retire in Friday's game against Aironi, but both will train tomorrow and will be in consideration when McGahan decides on his squad for Friday's game. O'Mahony's was a blood injury whilst O'Leary shipped a heavy tackle and considering the type of schedule facing Munster, management took the prudent step of replacing him immediately.

Meanwhile, Jerry Flannery had a positive diagnosis following his trip to see a specialist in Germany last week although as yet there is no definite timeframe for a return to full training.  David Wallace, Felix Jones, Mike Sherry, Peter Borlase & Troy Smith are the others who remain unavailable through injury.

Next Friday's game will be just the second of Munster's season for many of the players including Paul O'Connell, who looked particularly sharp on Friday night. ” I enjoyed the game, ” he said after training this morning. “Or scrum was excellent against Aironi. On nights like that a strong scrum is of massive importance.”

“All things considered I think it was a good performance,” he continued.” We really need to start building relationships with each other again, and getting used to playing with each other.

“I've rarely if every played with Peter (O'Mahony), obviously never played with BJ. That was Will's (Chambers) first game with the senior side. First time Danny Barnes played at inside centre. There are a lot of combinations there that are new.

“So we really need to get to know each other quickly. To get all the guys off the bench and finish the game in their half pummeling them was good for us.”

And looking forward to the Leinster game ? “Its probably the highest level you can go in Europe at the moment. Leinster, with their record, with the playing squad they have, It's going to be a massive step up for us and again the following week against Northampton.

So it's really good preparation for us but we really need to learn fast and hit the ground running next weekend.”