MUNSTER RUGBY HAVE confirmed the safe return of 34 players and staff to Irish soil.

The group touched down at Dublin Airport this evening following a trip to South Africa that became a challenging ordeal due to the current Covid-19 situation.

Fourteen members of the original travelling party have remained in a designated quarantine hotel in Cape Town after testing positive for the virus.

The players and staff who arrived back home today will now follow mandatory self-isolation and PCR testing at their own locations, as outlined by the government.

Munster were due to face the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria last Saturday, before moving on to Johannesburg this weekend to take on the Emirates Lions.

However, amid the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant, the double-header of United Rugby Championship fixtures was postponed after the province’s players and staff had already arrived in South Africa.

Munster, who are scheduled to begin their Heineken Champions Cup campaign away to Wasps on 12 December, say they are liaising with EPCR (European Professional Club Rugby) about their current situation ahead of Sunday week’s game in Coventry.

The province’s senior and academy players who didn’t travel to South Africa have been training since Monday, along with a number of the their NTS (National Talent Squad) and PTS (Provincial Talent Squad) members, at the High Performance Centre in Limerick, with academy manager Ian Costello and staff overseeing the training schedule.