O’Gara To Miss Round 2 Clash With Edinburgh

Scan results on Ronan O’Gara’s hamstring strain were revealed on Monday and the Heineken Cup’s record points scorer will not be fit to take part in the home game against Edinburgh.

He was replaced by Denis Hurley during the first half of the 22-17 defeat to Racing Metro 92 in the opening round, with Hurley going straight in at full-back and Ian Keatley moving to the out-half position.

Keatley, who has been playing and scoring well in this season’s RaboDirect PRO12, is now set for his first European start in the Munster number 10 jersey.

Better injury news for Munster and Ireland is that second row Paul O’Connell completed his first hour of rugby for the province since May.

He came through the Pool 1 opener unscathed and is expected to line out again in red against Edinburgh at Thomond Park on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 12.45pm).

O’Connell’s long-term second row partner Donncha O’Callaghan is reported to be progressing well in his recovery from the hamstring strain he sustained in the Leinster game.

O’Callaghan will need to come through training this week before a decision can be made on his participation against the Scots, and the same can be said for Niall Ronan (groin).

Felix Jones, meanwhile, took a full part in the Munster ‘A’ team’s British & Irish Cup win over Plymouth Albion and could be in the mix for the Edinburgh game. Ian Nagle also made a return to action at Brickfields last Saturday, scoring a try in the 26-22 verdict.

Two other players who will come into Rob Penney’s consideration are backs Luke O’Dea and Johne Murphy, the latter travelled to Paris as back-up at the weekend while O’Dea has recovered from a bout of illness which forced him to miss out on any rugby.

The following injured players are continuing with their rehabilitation programmes – James Coughlan (groin), Ivan Dineen (groin), Wian du Preez (knee), Keith Earls (groin) and Sean Scanlon (back).