Earls returns but O'Mahony out until January

AT LEAST the return of Keith Earls to Munster training today offsets confirmation that Peter O’Mahony sustained a hairline fracture of the jaw during Saturday’s 17-14 victory over Llanelli at Parc y Scarlets.

O’Mahony was forced off at half-time and is not expected to play again until January. That means he will miss the visit of Scarlets to Thomond Park on Sunday with the St Stephen’s Day fixture against Connacht probably beyond him as well.

The 22-year-old Cork man has been in the wars since forcing his way into the Munster backrow this season. Already considered a leader within the group, captaining the side in Paul O’Connell’s absence, his abrasive nature has also resulted in two concussions.

It does provide an opportunity for Denis Leamy to reclaim the number six jersey. Despite impressive cameos off the bench in recent weeks, the 30-year-old has struggled to nail down a place in the starting XV.

Niall Ronan has been operating well at openside flanker, in David Wallace’s continued absence, while James Coughlan is the preferred option at number eight.

Earls, meanwhile, sustained a medial knee injury in the opening seconds of the 24-19 defeat to Leinster on November 4th but is expected to return this weekend. The question now is where. Although on the wing is undoubtedly his most natural position, he filled in at fullback during the Six Nations and featured at outside centre in defeat to England last August.

Scarlets coach Nigel Davies and captain Matthew Rees both believe they can atone for Saturday’s home defeat by becoming only the second club to win a Heineken Cup fixture at Thomond Park.

“We were very confident but we weren’t accurate enough,” said Davies. “The match was of Test level intensity and you can’t afford errors but there were too many in our game.

“It is a tough place to go but we will go there all guns blazing as we did against Northampton.

“We have got the team to beat them. We will go out there and give it a crack but we have to be sharper and more accurate.”

Rees added: “We did more than enough to win the game at Parc y Scarlets. The pleasing thing is that we know we can put it right before going to Thomond Park on Sunday.

“We respect Munster and we knew it was going to be a tough game against them. But they scored a try from a kick we didn’t put off the park and that put us under pressure.

“Munster were more clinical than us and they looked to dominate the contact area. Munster did a good job on us in that area but hopefully we will be allowed to get quicker ball on Sunday.

“We just need to look back at the Northampton game. We went up there, chucked everything at them and came away with a great result. There is no reason why we can’t do that again.”

Elsewhere, Ulster’s main concern ahead of their round-four tie against Aironi in Italy is the rib injury sustained by Nevin Spence in last Friday’s bonus-point victory against the same opposition. Should Spence fail to recover, 36-year-old former Springbok Stefan Terblanche may be employed at centre as Paddy Wallace (thumb) and Luke Marshall (ankle) are still unavailable.

Irish international Tom Court is also expected to return to the frontrow although All Black tighthead prop John Afoa praised the performance of home-grown loosehead Paddy McAllister.

“Paddy (McAllister) started against Aironi and is a real talent,” said Afoa. “We put a lot of pressure on him during the week and he had to step up. He did that and we were very happy with how it went – he really delivered and put the pressure on the rest of the pack.”

London Irish number eight Chris Hala’ufia has been cited for an alleged dangerous high tackle during the Exiles’ Heineken Cup win over Racing Metro on Saturday. The 33-year-old Tongan has been called to account by citing commissioner Gordon Black over his first-half challenge on Racing fullback Gaetan Germain, as the Exiles kept their last-eight hopes alive with a 34-14 bonus-point win in France.