Tony McGahan’s side play their first home game of the league in Thomond Park against the Cardiff Blues on September 9, but the squad will still be without key players.
By the time Munster face the Newport Gwent Dragons in Musgrave Park at the end of the month and for the mouth-watering clash with Leinster in the RDS on October 3 Munster should be in a position to select from a full squad.
The ambition is to have all in situ for the Heineken Cup trip to the Northampton Saints on October 10.
“The six from the Lions Tour, as per agreement with the national management, they will only be available for Magners League round four,” explained Munster team manager Shaun Payne this Tuesday at a media briefing in UL.
For this Friday night’s opener in the Firhill Arena (8pm, Setanta Sports), Munster will look to the players that faced the Sale Sharks, London Irish and Leicester Tigers during the province’s pre-season.
Included in the 25-man squad is Paul Warwick who retired with a foot injury in the early stages of the game against the Leicester Tigers last weekend.
Also included are the try scorers Denis Hurley (2), Damien Varley and Felix Jones, from last Friday’s game as well as the quartet of Doug Howlett, Lifeimi Mafi, Jeremy Manning and Tony Buckley, who had been named n the squad for Leicester, but then withdrew.
Friday night will be the final fixture that Alan Quinlan will miss - his suspension ends on September 9 and he could be in the squad to face Cardiff.
Others that will miss the early games of the season are Jerry Flannery (calf), Ian Dowling (knee) and Tomas O’Leary (ankle).
Munster recorded two valuable wins over the Warriors last season.
In October 2008 Munster had to work very hard to see off Glasgow on a 25-17 score line at Thomond Park while on March 27 Munster collided with Glasgow at the Firhill Arena and won on a 26-13 score line.
Shaun Payne stressed that Munster will not be underestimating their Friday opponents: “Glasgow is a team that we did well against last season but if you look back over the last few seasons we seemed to struggle against them and they seem to raise their game for us.
“It’s a really tough opener for us - it alway seems to be an uncomfortable fixture for us,” he said.
The Munster team manager is hopeful that his squad’s younger players will continue their impressive pre-season form into the early rounds of the Magners League.
“What has been a real positive for us is the young players coming through from the Academy - Ian Nagle, Danny Barnes . . . it is vitally important that we have players coming through from the academy.”
Munster Squad: Marcus Horan, Tony Buckley, Julien Brugnaut, Denis Fogarty, Damien Varley, Mick O’Driscoll, Donnacha Ryan, Ian Nagle, Billy Holland, Tommy O’Donnell, Niall Ronan, Denis Leamy, James Coughlan, Peter Stringer, Toby Morland, Jeremy Manning, Paul Warwick, Lifeimi Mafi, Tom Gleeson, Barry Murphy, Doug Howlett, Denis Hurley, Scott Deasy, Felix Jones, Danny Barnes.
Jerome O’Connell
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