Munster Delay Team Selection Until Friday
Munster head coach Rob Penney puts his charges through their paces at the University of Limerick today, in weather conditions that were reminiscent of those experienced in Paris last weekend.
After the training session, the New Zealander announced that it will be Friday when he announces his team selection for the crucial Heineken Cup round 2 game against Edinburgh.
With a British & Irish Cup fixture on Saturday and players such as Donncha O’Callaghan on the recovering list and others like Felix Jones, Ian Nagle, Luke O’Dea and Johne Murphy who are back in the mix, it makes sense for the Munster management to delay finalising the side to face the Scots on Sunday afternoon.
O’Callaghan took a part in training in the wet conditions and afterwards declared himself, ‘happy enough’, but he will be required to do the same again on Friday before knowing whether or not he will have any involvement against Edinburgh.
Ronan O’Gara, the province’s record points scorer, is a definite non-starter and while Penney refused to commit to a time for his return he did imtimate it would be a matter of weeks not months.
The same applies to Keith Earls and Wian du Preez, while it would appear that number 8 James Coughlan is making good progress after sustaining a groin injury against Ulster last month.