McGahan’s men up the ante

CLOSE on 50 Munster rugby players and backroom team members are due to fly home from Portugal this Wednesday to finalise their preparations for Friday night’s season opening friendly against the Sale Sharks at Musgrave Park.
The 43-strong playing squad, who have been involved in an intensive training camp at the renowned Browns Sports and Leisure Centre in Vilamoura, features several new arrivals including French international prop Julien Brugnaut, former Garryowen hooker Damien Varley, who joins the province from London Wasps, former Connacht player Danny Riordan as well as former Ireland U20 full-back Felix Jones and Kiwi scum-half Toby Morland.


Also included on the Portugal trip are Tomas O’Leary and Jerry Flannery, both reported to be making excellent progress from their respective injuries, and Academy players, Scott Deasy, Danny Barnes, Mick Sherry, Andrew Burke, Conor Murray and Ian Nagle.
The five Munster players who were involved for the duration of the Lions tour - Ronan O’Gara, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell, David Wallace and Keith Earls - returned home yesterday while the remainder arrive back on Wednesday afternoon.
Munster’s Lions will not be involved in any of the three up-coming pre-season friendlies nor the early rounds of the Magners League.
Sale Sharks who Munster meet in Musgrave Park on Friday (7pm) spent the opening week of their pre-season at the Vilamoura complex.
Sale Sharks have already had one pre-season game against Montpelier last week in Millau that they lost 12-5. They have also played French side Albi and arrive in Ireland on Wednesday to prepare for the clash with Munster.
Sharks coach Kingsley Jones is expected to include the likes of Charlie Hodgson, Andrew Sheridan, Luke Abraham, Ben Cohen and a fully fit again Dwayne Peel in his squad for the trip to Munster.
Meanwhile adidas and Munster Rugby today officially unveiled the club’s new 2009-10 home kit.
The traditional red home kit with a new twist was revealed at Thomond Park by Munster players Paul O’Connell, Ronan O’Gara, Keith Earls, Donncha O’Callaghan, Denis Leamy and Doug Howlett.
The team will wear the kit for the first time in their pre-season friendly against Sale on Friday night and will be available in stores from August 27. The new shirt has a number of distinctive and specific features that tap into the tradition and heritage of Munster Rugby.
The words ‘wear with pride and honesty’ feature on the inside of the collar while the six counties of Munster - Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, Cork, Kerry and Waterford - are imprinted along the bottom end of the jersey, symbolising the unity within the province. The antlers from the Munster Rugby logo are also embossed across the chest of the jersey.
The new jersey will be available in stores from August 27.

Colm kinsella

Are Munster getting boring?

All the superlatives seem shallow and superficial when you try to describe the magnificent manner in which Munster dispatched a pathetic Sale at Thomond Park on Friday night.
Before Tony McGahan arrived on the scene Munster didn’t do aesthetics. They were good, primarily, at compressing a pitch and referencing every contest with bodily contact - by hunting, shunting and squeezing a team they ultimately examined an opponent’s appetite for a good old fight.
Now though they can play a bit and for that reason they have moved beyond reproach. And, after Friday night, not even the most finicky critic in a television studio could shout “hold it there”, flourish a biro and hold a player to ransom for what he had or rather he hadn’t done.
Better still the demolition of the Sharks has well and truly placed Munster on a pedestal: the greatest club team on this continent - only Toulouse are registered in the same postcode.
Despite a recent blip in form the 37-14 win over Sale secured Munster’s place in the quarter-finals for the 11th successive season - for 11 successive seasons, thanks to an awkward group system, Munster have found themselves in winner-takes-all scenarios and come out the right side of the result.
Some say there’s nothing more boring than perfection. Who wants, they ask, a team to win all the time? There’s a reason, they explain, why sports movies are about disorganised groups of incompetent rejects who find a way to scrape past a vastly superior force at the last possible second - that’s, somehow, more inspiring.
I beg to differ. When David emerges from his corner to face Goliath we all know where we are meant to stand on the issue - roaring the plucky lightweight on as he faces down a 14-stoner across the ring.
But, I ask you, how noble is it to want to see the successful humiliated? Shouldn’t this approach to sport and to life in general be re-thought?
There was a time when Munster rugby was cast in the role of David. There were times when they were as tragic as the Native Americans. Now though they are Goliath and every time they run into David we should be hoping that the little fella’s sling gets shoved where the sun don’t shine!

Brian McDonnell