Advertisement
INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Team news

Paul O'Connell named in Munster squad for vital France trip

Tony McGahan reveals panel that will face Toulon on Sunday in the Heineken Cup.

MUNSTER BOSS TONY McGahan today named a 27-man squad, which includes skipper Paul O’Connell, for Sunday’s Heineken Cup clash against Toulon at Stade Félix Mayol (3pm).

The second row makes a return to the Reds squad following a four-week suspension picked up for his strike on Jonathon Thomas of Ospreys.

The squad continued their preparations with a training session at the Cork Institute of Technology this morning.

Munster decided against registering a replacement for the injured Jerry Flannery.

As it stands they will rely on Damien Varley and Mike Sherry in the hooker role but McGahan has the option of registering another player ahead of next week’s final pool match with London Irish.

ERC rules permit a team to un-register a player and replace him with a previously unregistered player on the Tusday prior to each game in the month of January.

Munster players such as Marcus Horan, Peter Borlase and Sean Henry could all have been in line to be included, but the Munster management has decided to stick with the same group of players that they have used to date.

One club that is expected to take up this option of replacing a player is English side Saracens who it is believed will add Gavin Henson to their squad.

Munster will reveal the team at noon on Friday.

Munster Squad: Wian Du Preez, Darragh Hurley, Tony Buckley, John Hayes, Mike Sherry, Damien Varley, Billy Holland, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell, Mick O’Driscoll, Donnacha Ryan, Niall Ronan, James Coughlan, Tommy O’Donnell, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Tomas O’Leary, Peter Stringer, Scott Deasy, Ronan O’Gara, Paul Warwick, Johne Murphy, Sam Tuitupou, Keith Earls, Lifeimi Mafi, Denis Hurley, Doug Howlett.