Munster's Niall O'Donovan is the man entrusted with shaping the Irish pack as they face into the next season's Six Nations championship. His work with Munster has finally gained him the recognition he deserves and commenting on his elevation to the highest level, the former Shannon and Munster number 8 said, " I'm honoured to be asked to contribute to the Ireland senior team and I look forward to working with the players and the management."

One of those players that O'Donovan will be working with is his Munster captain Mick Galwey who has little doubt about O'Donovan's capabilities for the challenge ahead, " I've known him since 1985 when I first came to Shannon. He was a great player and his record as a coach speaks for itself. He was involved when Shannon won their first two AIL titles and then he moved on to the Munster job. He's an excellent coach and the players have huge respect for him. He'll bring his own ideas to the Ireland job, he's probably one of the best forward coaches in rugby anywhere in the world."

Munster supporters will be more than a little saddened to see O'Donovan follow Kidney on the international route and by all accounts both are due to sever their coaching ties with Munster at the end of the province's involvement in the Heineken Cup. If that is the case and were Munster to fail to qualify for the quarter final of the Euro then they would have no coaches to take them through the Guinness Interprovincial matches, which are qualifiers for next season's Heineken Cup. However, Galwey's answer to that is quite simple, "We have to make sure that we do qualify for the quarters first of all. If we want to keep them till the end of our season, then we have to go the whole way. Sure it's the least we owe them, not to mention our supporters."