Kidney Expects To Be Dealing From A Full Deck

Munster’s coach Declan Kidney expects to be dealing from a near full deck when he sits down with management next week to select his starting 22 for the Heineken Cup final clash with Toulouse.

The likes of Barry Murphy (dislocated thumb) and Niall Ronan (dislocated/fractured thumb) will obviously not available to him nor will Gerry Hurley or James Coughlan. Hurley dislocated his shoulder in the AIB League final while Coughlan sustained a knee injury playing the Ireland Sevens side in Denmark.

However, Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary, Lifeimi Mafi and Doug Howlett are all expected to take a full part in training next week. O’Gara picked up an ankle injury in the game against Glasgow that has seen him confined to just gym work while O’Leary tweaked a hamstring against Llanelli.

Mafi came a cropper in the game against Glasgow also picking up an ankle injury but he did some light training yesterday in Cork and is not considered a concern nor is Howlett who missed that Glasgow game with a foot injury.

Munster have a squad session tomorrow in Cork, have another in Limerick on Tuesday and a final session behind closed doors this day week.

They assemble in Shannon Airport on the day prior to the final and are due to depart for Cardiff at 10.30am, Toulouse will get to the Welsh capital the day before.

Meanwhile, the Magner League Specsavers Fairplay award has gone to Munster who have the best disciplinary record in this year’s League. The award goes to the club with the fewest disciplinary points (1 point for each yellow card, and 3 points for each red card or upheld citing) at the end of each season the winners gets  £10,000 to spend on their youth development programme. Munster finished with just five yellow cards, one less than Glasgow Warriors and four less than Ospreys and Leinster.