MUNSTER FORWARD NIALL RONAN was discharged from Cork University Hospital on Monday afternoon following an overnight stay for a blow to the head he received against Scarlets.
The flanker, who had just returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines, was attempting to turnover ball in a ruck when Scarlets’ Australian lock Jake Ball crashed into and sent him reeling.
There was a 10 minute delay as physios, medical officials and St John’s Ambulance volunteers tended to the stricken player.
Ronan was placed in a neck brace and stretchered off to a waiting ambulance that immediately took him to CUH.
The Munster forward has returned to his Limerick home and will be monitored on a daily basis with a view to his returning to training next week.
Citing commissioner John West has put Ball up for a disciplinary hearing for allegedly contradicting an IRB regulation, which states, “Dangerous play in a scrum, ruck or maul. Players must not charge into a ruck or maul without binding.”
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Munster’s Billy Holland described the incident as “gut-wrenching” for his teammate and coach Rob Penney commented, “He’s had a rash of injuries over his career and it would be great to see him get a solid run.”
Scrum woes
Munster face Glasgow at home on Saturday in the Pro12 and will be keen to sort out the scrummaging problems that cost them four points against Scarlets.
The home scrum creaked badly as a torrential downpour swept over Musgrave Park. Referee Laurent Cardona penalised them five times for earl engagements.
Holland said, “We needed to be up at half-time. Going in all square wasn’t good enough.
The scrum let us down. One to eight, we let everyone else down. We had scrum opportunities five metres out in the second-half and we didn’t capitalise on them.”
“A large degree of that was our own problem,” Penney conceded.
“It’s an area of the game we are endeavouring to get better at and make improvements but it is an area that we may have taken a slight step backwards at [on Sunday] … we’ve got some work to do there.”
Munster’s two best chances came from a Felix Jones chip and charge and a CJ Stander drive for the line that was turned down when it went up to the TMO.
Penney lamented the spurned scoring chances but paid credit to sub JJ Hanrahan for scoring a late penalty to secure a losing bonus point.
“There’s still a long way to go but every point is critical,” he said.
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