Northampton leave out Metcalfe

Although resigned to being without English captain Matt Dawson as well as England high profile, high-profile, cosmopolitan line-up containing 10 internationals from six nations with three more on the bench for tomorrow's Heineken European Cup final.

If there is a big surprise as such, and big being the operative word, then it is the exclusion of their gangling 7 ft lock Richard Metcalfe, who had a huge debut for Scotland in their stirring Calcutta Cup win over England, and another big game in Northampton's European Cup semi-final win over Llanelli.

Metcalfe will doubtless be one of the seven replacements chosen from the nine named yesterday and will probably take some part. Northampton will start with Andrew Newman and Tim Rodber in the second row, with Dom Mackinnon, the Sydney-born, in part New Zealand-reared Scottish A flanker on the blind side of the back row.

Budge Pountney, who has carried an ever increasing load as Northampton have wilted lately, is chosen as open side flanker, though he is one of many prospective absentees from Scotland's forthcoming tour of New Zealand as he requires an operation for a broken nose. Referring to tomorrow's game, he says: "I'm okay as long as I remember to keep my mouth open."

Scotland coach Ian McGeechan said he would prefer if Pountney did not play. McGeechan yesterday refused to rule himself out of the running to lead the Lions tour to Australia next summer. Team manager Donal Lenihan will choose the coach next week.

Northampton's Pat Lam, despite his shoulder injury, returns at number eight, having last night picked up the Players' Player of the Year award 48 hours after picking up a special award at the Allied Dunbar Premiership Awards for his form over the past three years. In that time Lam has scored 28 tries in 57 Premiership games.

Northampton's established front row has a particularly gnarled look to it, with a mix of Springbok loosehead Garry Pagel (playing his 37th of Northampton's 39 competitive games this season), Puma hooker Federico Mendez (possibly playing his last ever game for the club) and Scottish tight-head Matthew Stewart.

Dom Malone, whose father hails from Belfast, again deputises for scrum-half Dawson after scoring tries in the quarter-final and last Sunday's crucial win at Newcastle, which has assured Northampton of European Cup rugby next season.

Outside him will be Alie Hepher, whose out-half play is tends to bring a dangerous three-quarter line into action. The 25-year-old Hepher has the added incentive of playing for a place in England's squad to tour South Africa, now that Alex King has withdrawn.

Paul Grayson, who was omitted to make way for Hepher in the semi-final against Llanelli but came off the bench to land the winning injury-time penalty (as he had done against Wasps in the quarter-final) again stands in for Beal at full back.

"It's the pack we expected," commented Mick Galwey after the Munster squad's arrival at their London hotel yesterday. "It's a good pack. The front row speaks for itself, the second row is very hardworking and that lad Mackinnon is a damned good player. It's still a good back-line as well."

The Munster captain looked relaxed, despite citing this as possibly a bigger game for players and supporters than some Tests. "Unlike a championship match in Twickenham, this is pure rugby support as opposed to a social occasion. That's the major difference."

The Munster Branch have sold over 19,000 tickets and, all told, 25,000 tickets have been sold in Ireland. An estimated 5,000 are expected to travel from Limerick tomorrow morning, while the first batches were already thronging Shannon airport when the squad made a loudly-hailed departure yesterday.

The interest is at such a fever pitch that when Munster's assistant coach Niall O'Donovan left a Thmond Park training session last week prior to the warm-down he was approached an hour later by a panic-stricken stranger asking desperately: "How's (John) Langford?" Unbeknown to O'Donovan, the Wallaby lock had tweaked a hamstring which required strapping, and the news was already all over Limerick.

The squad were given a police escort to Shannon Airport amid much car-horn tooting and one senses the Munster management were relieved that the squad had escaped from the domestic hype to their secret base. On arrival they had their last full-scale session, in private, and will walk Twickenham today.

Northampton: Grayson; Moir, Bateman, Allen, Cohen; A Hepher, Malone; Pagel, Mendez, Stewart, Newman, Rodber, Mackinnon, Pountney, Lam (capt). Replacements (from): Bramhall, Tucker, Northey, Walter, Scelzo, Metcalfe, S Hepher, Phillips, Holmes.