Anderson joins ambitious Leinster

Willie Anderson was formally confirmed as Leinster's new assistant coach in succession to the Munster-bound Alan Gaffney yesterday and has signed a three-year deal to link up with Matt Williams in a full-time capacity.

Controversially overlooked for the Ulster job a year ago, Anderson returns to the Irish representative scene for the first time since he was unofficially the assistant coach/forwards coach to the Irish pack in the early 90s, contributing to the famous back-to-back wins over England in 1993 and '94.

Anderson still had two years to run on a new three-year deal with his home-town club Dungannon, and the former Irish captain made a point of thanking last year's AIL champions for the manner in which they agreed to release him. "If Dungannon want any assistance on a consultancy basis I'll be only too happy to accommodate them."

Having worked on a part-time basis with Leinster for the past year and a half, Anderson was picked from a high-profile shortlist. "I'm delighted to get the opportunity to work with such a talented bunch of players. To make the next step they still have some areas they need to improve but the great thing about them is that they are ambitious."

Munster, meantime, have picked a full-strength side apart from the injured Anthony Foley and Jim Williams for their European Cup final warm-up game in the Interprovincial finale away to Ulster tomorrow night. In the absence of the latter duo, Declan Kidney has picked the back row which finished the semi-final against Castres, with Alan Quinlan flanked by Donnacha O'Callaghan and David Wallace, while retaining the rest of the team which started.

Kidney admitted that both Foley and Williams are in a race against time to be fit for the Cardiff final on May 25th. An unspecified but limited number of tickets for that match, probably less than 2,000 of the Munster Branch's 20,000 allocation, will go on sale at 9am in Thomond Park and Musgrave Park tomorrow, which is likely to prompt long and mostly disappointed queues outside both venues.

MUNSTER (v Ulster): D Crotty; J Kelly, R Henderson, J Holland, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; P Clohessy, F Sheahan, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), P O'Connell, D O'Callaghan, A Quinlan, D Wallace. Replacements: M Horan, J Fogarty, M O'Driscoll, C McMahon, M Prendergast, M Mullins, J Staunton.