THE Leinster Branch committee met last night to discuss the options facing the province on the choice of venue for their Heineken European Cup quarter-final against Biarritz and will meet Matt Williams and the Leinster management tomorrow.
By Gerry Thornley
Williams and the Leinster players feel that the match should go ahead at Donnybrook, where the team has been unbeaten in four years and 12 matches, and that there would have to be a crowd of over 40,000 to justify switching the game, thereby diminishing their home advantage.
Meanwhile, good news came the way of Munster coach Alan Gaffney and Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan when David Wallace and Rob Henderson were given the all-clear to return to action following a long period recovering from injury.
Wallace has been out of action since undergoing corrective surgery last August on a troublesome shoulder while Henderson's last game was against Gloucester in the opening European Cup game in Kingsholm on October 12th.
Both players have been back in training and Gaffney is hopeful that they might get a run in the All-Ireland League at the weekend.
Tickets for Munster's Celtic League final clash with Neath (February 1st) are now on sale from Musgrave Park and Thomond Park. They can also be purchased on the Munster ticketline 021-4315767 (10.0 a.m.- 3 p.m.).
Meanwhile, England will today reveal their revised bid to stage the 2007 World Cup after submitting it to the International Rugby Board last week along with France, the only other contenders to host the tournament. The two countries handed in their original bids last October with the winner expected to be announced the following month. The IRB said that neither submission complied with regulations and gave them until this month to reapply with the vote on who would stage the tournament put off until April.
Wales are leaning towards supporting England who have promised them more money and yesterday the Welsh Rugby Union's chief executive David Moffett revealed to the country's nine Premiership clubs the extent of the debt built up by the governing body over the last five years.
The WRU owes nearly £60 million to Barclays Bank and BT in loans taken out to build the Millennium Stadium.
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