O’Connell forced out at last minute
LIONS captain, Paul O’Connell, was due to return to the starting XV for Munster this weekend and lead his side into the Magners League week four battle against the Dragons on Sunday 17.05 at Musgrave Park in Cork. But due to a slight hamstring problem his original starting XV berth will now go to fellow Lion Donncha O’Callaghan.
Straight into action following his successful South African trip will be Keith Earls who slots in at fullback, while Ronan O’Gara anchors the fly half berth with O’Leary inside him at nine.
Alan Quinlan stays in the back row at six while Donnacha Ryan now takes up O’Callaghan’s vacated spot. Mick O’Driscoll partners O’Callaghan in the second row.
Also included in the match day 22 will be French prop Julien Brugnaut and South African Springbok star Jean de Villiers who is likely to play some part in the second half of the game.
Entering his second season at the helm of Munster Rugby, head coach, Tony McGahan, has said that his side are clearly focused on their goals for this season. Getting back the Heineken Cup has been earmarked as one of, if not the, top priority. Making the last four of the Magners league new play-off set up is also just as important and the return of his international Lions will assist the side as a whole to attain those goals.
Munster: Keith Earls; Felix Jones, Barry Murphy, Lifeimi Mafi, Denis Hurley; Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary; Marcus Horan,Denis Fogarty, Tony Buckley; Mick O’Driscoll, Donncha O’Callaghan; Alan Quinlan, Tommy O’Donnell, Nick Williams. Replacements: Damian Varley, Julien Brugnaut, Donnacha Ryan, James Coughlan, Toby Morland, Jeremy Manning, Jean de Villiers.
