MUNSTER rugby’s season is broken down into ML’s and ERC’s. ML’s are Magner’s league weeks and ERC’s are Heineken Cup weeks. This week is ML three for Tony Mc Gahan and co and in ML four, the Irish Lions and new signing Jean De Villiers are available for selection. So, this Saturday night’s game against Scarlet in Parc y Scarlets is of vital importance to any player who is given the chance to shine.
The same squad that beat Cardiff last weekend has been handed the opportunity to impress once more against the LLanelli outfit this week. Munster manager Shaun Payne was quick this week to state that just because the Irish Lions are back does not mean that the players who are playing this week will be dropped. The opposite is the fact. “The players who have been playing so far are the players who own the Munster jersey at the moment. It is up to the returning players to impress enough to be selected. It is not going to be a case of changing everyone for the sake of change. The performance last week was good and another one like that will see the bulk of the side retained for ML four against Newport in Cork on Sunday week”.
Munster’s embarrassment of riches is further highlighted for the Newport week by the potential return of Tomas O Leary and Jerry Flannery from injury. With three scrum halves and three hookers of high quality, how are Munster going to keep everyone happy? “Tony is the man who will make those calls next week. The players will be told early in the week, one to one, what the team is going to be and where they stand. It is great of course to have everyone back, but it is also going to be hard to integrate everyone back in quickly. Our preseason has been disrupted by the Lions and Churchill Cup panel members so we need to make sure we are getting the combinations right, so that we remain competitive in Magners League and also in the Heineken Cup” explains Payne.
Indeed, ML four sees Munster at home to Newport, ML five sees the reds travel to the RDS for a massive tie against the European Champions Leinster and all of that is topped of with the first game in the Heineken Cup. It is a headache, but it is a good one to have.
Last week’s game against Cardiff was a scrappy affair which Munster won out of in the end. Tries from Marcus Horan and Denis Leamy capped a night where there was significant improvement in the pack. With one win from two games Munster know that to keep pace they will need another big performance against the won one and lost one Scarlets.
What bigger incentive though do the players on this weekend’s panel need? After all, a big win or a good performance on an individual basis and you will get a shot at the ERC team.
