As the Munster squad and management team jetted out to Vilamoura, Portugal for a week-long training camp today Payne said the Musgrave Park fixtures with the Sale Sharks on Friday, August 14 and London Irish on Friday, August 21 and the Welford Road clash against the Leicester Tigers seven days later would prove key elements in helping them finalise their starting line-up for the opening competitive match away to the Glasgow Warriors on September 4.
Munster are set to be without their British & Irish Lions contingent of Paul O’Connell, Ronan O’Gara, Donncha O’Callaghan, Keith Earls and David Wallace until the fourth week of the Magners League campaign. But their absence will allow several less experienced players to gain valuable match time for the province in the opening games of the new Magners League season.
Munster manager Payne also issued positive medical bulletins about hooker Jerry Flannery, who was sidelined with an elbow injury, and scrum-half Tomas O’Leary, who sustained a broken ankle in April.
Both players are recovering well from the injuries which forced them to miss the Lions tour to South Africa.
“Our Lions players, who were in South Africa, are in Portugal until Sunday so that we can give them a full week’s training next week,” Shaun Payne pointed out.
“This is their first week back in training. They have had their four weeks’ holidays and we want them to have as little disruption as possible.
“There is a need for us all to be together, but a need for the Lions to have a decent pre-season as well.
“I think a lot of the guys have come back very fit. That has been impressive. I don’t think some of the younger lads had much of a holiday at all from some of the scores that they are posting in the gym.
“There is a lot of competition for places at the moment.
“Ciaran O’Boyle had an operation last week on his hamstring. That could take a while, a couple of months. It could be the end of the year before he is available to us.
“Everyone else is doing well and on track.
“Tomas O’Leary and Jerry Flannery are exactly where we would like them to be, if not ahead of that, in terms of their recuperation.
“They have been doing really well. In the case of Tomas, you don’t want to be getting ahead of yourself.
“You need to keep things going nice and easy. You don’t want to be pushing an injury like that in any way. He is on track.
“At the minute we will not be playing Jerry Flannery. We will see what happens with the pre-season games.
“Jerry’s work ethic is massive. He has obviously gone away and gotten himself in top shape. We are hoping he will be ready for the start of the new season.”
Payne said that two of the latest overseas players to join the squad, Kiwi scrum-half Toby Morland and French prop Julien Brugnaut, had also been impressing.
“Toby Morland is an excellent player, very fit and technically very good as you would expect from a New Zealand scrum-half.
“He is as tough as nails.
“You can only tell so much in training obviously, but we have been very impressed with what we have seen in training so far.
“With Julien Brugnaut we have gone through and studied a lot of his games. We have seen what he is capable of. He is very strong and a very capable fellow, especially in the scrums.
“I am sure he will fit in very well. He can play at tight-head and loosehead and seems very keen.
“He sees playing with Munster as a big honour and that is something we are delighted with.”
Colm Kinsella
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