Munster prepare to defend league title

MUNSTER begin the defence of their Magners League title in Glasgow this Friday night, but without 13 front line players.
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

Munster travel to Glasgow for a critical clash

MAGNERS League table toppers Munster begin a critical phase in their season when they travel to Firhill this Friday night for a round 13 tie with the Glasgow Warriors.
Munster, who have lost only one of their last four meetings with the Warriors, currently enjoy a three point lead over great rivals Leinster at the summit of the League table. Just six series of games remain to be played in the competition this season.
Tony McGahan’s men are due to host Leinster in a crunch Magners League tie at Thomond Park on Saturday week, April 4.
Munster’s clash with the Warriors on Friday night is due to begin at 7.45pm and the game will be televised live on Setanta Sports.
Munster welcomed their Irish Grand Slam winning players into their set-up this week.
However, several front-line Irish players are not expected to be involved in Friday night’s tie.
The Munster squad to face the Warriors was set to be unveiled this Wednesday afternoon and the panel was expected to include Denis Leamy, Mick O’Driscoll and Peter Stringer who began Saturday’s crunch RBS Six Nations Championship tie with Wales on the replacements’ bench.
Munster will approach Friday night’s game at Firhill in confident mood. The province have won their last five games in all competitions. The Magners League side remain unbeaten since their shock 11-37 defeat at the hands of Ulster at Thomond Park on January 3.
Munster’s only loss to a Scottish side in their last ten meetings since October 2006 was a 18-21 defeat to Glasgow at Musgrave Park in May of last year. Glasgow Warriors, for their part, have lost their last three matches in the Magners League since their 25-20 victory over Scottish rivals Edinburgh at Firhill Arena on January 2. However, Glasgow are unbeaten at Firhill against all Irish opponents since Leinster won there 21-18 in May 2006.
Meanwhile, the Ospreys will bring their biggest ever travelling support to Limerick for their Heineken Cup quarter-final tie with Munster on Easter Sunday.
However, the Welsh club has announced that will not be taking up their entire allocation of 6,400 tickets for their quarter-final clash.
The Ospreys have confirmed that their tickets have now been withdrawn from public sale.
A statement on the Ospreys official website said: “We’re thrilled with the enormous demand we’ve had for tickets, and look forward to seeing our biggest-yet travelling contingent of Ospreylians.
“While we couldn’t hope to outnumber what will prove a vast sea of Munster fans, we have no doubt our travelling support will make a noise to reckon with. . . Having now given ample opportunity for our OWN supporters to secure their tickets, we have decided to herewith return all unsold tickets to Munster Rugby to distribute according to their own ticket policies.”
Munster Rugby indicated that returned tickets would be ‘distributed based on Munster Branch ticket guidelines’ and further details would be confirmed this week. Further ticket updates will be available from the Munster Rugby website.

Colm Kinsella