Pusey has Landed

Australian lock David Pusey arrived in Ireland today (Tuesday) to join up with Munster having signed a two-year contract earlier this summer.

Australian lock David Pusey arrived in Ireland today (Tuesday) to join up with Munster having signed a two-year contract earlier this summer.

The 23 year old former Australian Schools and Under 21 international spent the last two seasons with the ACT Brumbies. A measure of Pusey s ability is best gauged by the fact that he made 23 Super 12 appearances for the Brumbies despite the presence in the squad of senior internationals, David Giffen, Justin Harrison, Daniel Vickerman and Owen Finegan.

Pusey has been playing competitive rugby on a regular basis, since agreeing terms with Munster, with the Sydney based Southern Districts in the Toohey s New Cup. His most recent outing was on September 6th against Paramatta and so the 6 5ins lock is ready to begin work with his new team-mates straight away.

“The cup competition has been running since June, I ve been playing regularly, so I m in pretty good shape”, he said this morning on arrival at Cork Airport, “The flight over was uneventful and I slept well so recovery time should be short and I m just looking forward to meeting the squad and getting on with playing rugby.”

Pusey admitted that outside of the Six Nations, northern hemisphere rugby doesn t get a lot of coverage in Australia, but he was aware of Munster, knew they were one of ‘the strongest club sides’ and then sought out John Langford,

“John filled me in on the Munster scene and then I spoke with Jim (Williams) and I d have to say they only had good things to say. After that I saw some videos of their games. Saw the way they play. Got an idea of the passion they bring to the game and of the atmosphere surrounding their matches. It was a fairly potent mix. Obviously it was a wrench to leave home, but the decision was that much easier having spoken to the two guys and I can t wait to get into it. Really looking forward to playing with Munster.”

With two rounds of the Celtic League completed, Munster find themselves in fifth place having lost last weekend to Llanelli Scarlets and Munster coach Alan Gaffney sees the new arrival featuring in his training plans straight away.

“I m delighted that David has finally made it over. He s a quality player who will enhance our squad and hopefully he ll be able to hook up with the rest of the players later in the week.”

Gaffney was far from downcast over last weekend s defeat and preferred to take positives from the game against Llanelli.

“It s never nice to lose, nobody wants that. But we lost to a good side – Llanelli will be there or thereabouts when this League is being decided and we lost with a young side who will benefit from the experience. And that s what this competition is all about, exposing players to the next level.”