ANTHONY FOLEY DENIED that Munster have had any discussions with the IRFU about Ian Madigan moving south from Leinster next season.
The Munster head coach did, however, say that his province are open to all ideas.
A report in the Irish Times yesterday morning suggested the IRFU are keen to relocate Madigan to Munster in order to allow him more game time in the out-half position, with Ireland first-choice Johnny Sexton blocking his path in Leinster.
Madigan’s Leinster contract expires next summer and he has attracted interest from the likes of Bordeaux, Montpellier, Harlequins and English Championship club Bristol – who are confident of finally being promoted this season.
Indeed, The42 understands that Madigan took the opportunity to travel to Bordeaux last weekend in order to visit the Top 14 club’s facilities and meet with president Laurent Marti.
While Madigan would certainly augment his base salary by moving abroad, the IRFU are keen to retain the 26-year-old’s services, given that he has been heavily involved in Joe Schmidt’s Ireland set-up since 2013.
A move to Munster would make sense on a rugby basis, although it is questionable whether Madigan himself would be keen on shifting from Dublin to Limerick and integrating into a new province.
For his part, Foley claims Munster have not been involved in any discussions about such a move.
“I haven’t heard anything about that,” said Foley. “We’re open to every idea. I just think that it’s unfair on the club he’s at, the player himself, for stuff like that to be out there. I know it’s silly season at this time of the year anyway for stuff to be heading out there.
“Players have to negotiate their contracts. Some will do it behind closed doors, some will do it in the media and some of them will have no control over what is in the media.
“I’m sure it’s the least of the issues they want this week (ahead of the Champions Cup). It’s something we’re not going to talk about in the open anyway. It’s about rugby for us to be honest with you; that’s the most important thing for us.”
Foley is far more concerned with planning for Saturday’s vital Champions Cup clash with Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park.
Kiwi centre Francis Saili remains a doubt for the meeting with the Premiership club, having been restricted to “rehab running” at the University of Limerick as the remainder of the squad trained yesterday.
Foley says Munster will wait to see how Saili reacts to his running session before deciding what part he takes in Thursday’s pitch session.
Conor Murray joined Mike Sherry (knee), Donnacha Ryan (hip), Andrew Conway (illness), BJ Botha (concussion) and Jack O’Donoghue (illness) in returning to full training at UL yesterday, but is also a doubt for the weekend.
As with Saili, Munster must wait to see how Murray, Ryan and Sherry pull up today.
The Ireland scrum-half has been carrying a bruised foot since his most recent appearance against Treviso on 14 November, and Foley confirmed that the major concern since then has been the risk of Murray ending up with a broken bone in the foot.
“Yeah, I think that’s always the worry around this sort of stuff, so we took him off the last three weeks now – Stade, Connacht, Dragons – so he’s had three weeks where he’s had no pressure through that foot,” said Foley.
“This is the week where we’re pushing it. He ran last week three to four times and this week he’s trained fully so far and we need to see where it goes tomorrow.”
Peter O’Mahony (knee), Duncan Casey (pec) and Stephen Archer (neck) remain in rehab, while Johnny Holland (hamstring) and Peter McCabe (pec) have only recently returned to modified training with Munster.
Tommy O’Donnell (hip) is another on the comeback trail, but Foley stated that Munster are actually relatively “fortunate” injury-wise in comparison with their situation at times last season and the lack of luck currently being experienced in other provinces.
Ulster’s injury update on Monday was a difficult read, while Connacht’s current list of sidelined players is scarcely believable. Foley said managing the fitness of players after the World Cup and amidst a long run of fixtures on consecutive weekends is no easy task.
“We’d 40 players at training today, training fully and it’s about us getting our game together.
I do understand fellas coming off a World Cup, I do understand that there’s 13 games in a row, which is unprecedented but that’s what was organised for us,” said Foley. “It’s not ideal. I don’t think any player would like it but that’s why I think it’s important that you manage the players.
“We’ve had to make eight changes a number of weeks in a row so we’re not flogging dead horses. Fellas, when they’re fatigued, they’ve more likelihood of getting injured, so it’s about keeping as many fresh bodies out on the pitch and looking after them during the week – not mollycoddling them, but making sure they’re fit for action.
“We’ll find out at the end of this run of games has that worked or not. Sometimes you have to take a bit of pain to get to the end result and hopefully our little bit of pain has been taken.”
