Portugal will be no sun holiday for Munster

RUGBY MUNSTER SQUAD AND TRI-NATIONS NEWS:MUNSTER WILL travel to Portugal today for pre-season training before their series of friendly matches against London Irish, Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers.

Some of the Irish players, who played in the Churchill Cup during the summer, probably won’t compete for the province until game two of the Magners League, against Cardiff Blues on September 11th at Thomond Park. The Lions players, who arrived back to domestic training this week, will take longer to come back and won’t likely turn out until Magners League game four in Musgrave Park against the Dragons on September 27th.

Clearly Munster manager Shaun Payne has some early-season juggling to do with his squad. But a Grand Slam for the front-end players and a Magners League title represents a poor season by Munster standards and Payne’s head is dove-tailing, slotting-in and fitting players into the new season according to their levels, injuries, summer workload and the needs of Irish coach Declan Kidney.

Add to that a selection of overseas players; a French prop, a New Zealand scrumhalf and a South African centre adding to the 12 new contracts signed overall and Portugal is shaping up to be no holiday in the sun.

“It will be a bit of a balancing act, as is always the case,” says Payne. “This is the first week back and there is always disruption. There is a need for us to get together and have a good pre-season. But as the season unfolds injuries and things like that come into it. Toby Moreland comes in from New Zealand (on a three-month contract). He’s a scrum-half, who just came off a beating in the Super 14 final but he’s technically very, very good as you’d expect from a New Zealander. Tough as nails. You can only see so much at training but what we’ve seen so far we’re very impressed.

“Julien (Brugnaut), we obviously have studied many of his games. We’ve seen what he’s capable of. He’s a very strong and capable fellow. He sees it as a big honour to play for Munster, really, really keen for it. Sure there is an unknown factor about it. But he plays both sides of the scrum at tighthead and loosehead and he seems to be quite dynamic, able to get around the park. I’ve a good feeling about him.

“Jean (de Villiers) is a perfect fit for us. I’ve known Jean over the years and I’ve had a few chats with him, especially over the last while. He is mad about rugby, he lives for his rugby as well and is a very sociable guy. He has built-in respect already from the players and I think he’ll fit in. I came into Munster and to be honest it is hard not to fit into Munster. It’s easy to buy into.”

But the former wing and now centre, will not be in Ireland until next month, once he is released by his South African club Eastern Province. Importantly, he must be signed up with Munster and in situ before September 17th to be eligible to play in the Heineken Cup, which is once again the club’s priority.

Technically South African coach Pieter de Villiers could also pick Jean de Villiers to play against Ireland in the final November Test match in Croke Park, but the controversial coach has indicated that he will only entertain the idea of picking home-based players for the Springbok side.

Injured Irish players Tomás O’Leary and Jerry Flannery still have some time to go before being declared fully fit to play. Payne and coach Tony McGahan have no intention of rushing either with O’Leary still undergoing rehab following his horrible leg injury and Flannery, who was injured with the Lions in London prior to departure to South Africa, much closer to pitch action.

“At the moment we won’t be playing him,” said Payne of the Irish hooker Flannery. “We won’t play him pre-season. His work ethic is massive but I think we’ll have to hold him back for now.”