Munster taking no chances with O'Connell

Celtic League team news: Munster coach Tony McGahan has decided to wrap his newly crowned Lion King, Paul O'Connell, in cotton wool ahead of the forthcoming Heineken Cup semi-final against Leinster. O'Connell, confirmed as Lions captain on Tuesday, will watch tomorrow night's Celtic League match against Llanelli from the stands.

Chasing silverware on two fronts, McGahan has included seven of the eight Munster Lions in his starting line-up for Musgrave Park but O’Connell’s name was conspicuous by its absence when the teamsheet was released this afternoon.

The secondrow, who also sat out last weekend’s win over Connacht, missed yesterday’s training sessions in Limerick.

The management team, however, were quick to allay any fitness concerns for Saturday week’s eagerly anticipated All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park with his absence described as “purely precautionary”.

While O’Connell remains on the sidelines, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Donncha O’Callaghan and Alan Qunlan all come back into the side for the final tune up before the Leinster clash.

Rua Tipoki, on the other hand, looks unlikely to feature in the red of Munster again before he returns to New Zealand in the summer. The Kiwi has been unable to shake off the injury problems that limited his final season in Ireland.

“I have had ongoing problems with my hamstring since October,” Tipoki explained. “I have since suffered recurrences of the same injury which have meant I have not yet been able to play in competitive games, despite being able to take a limited part in training.

“It has been a deeply frustrating time for me as I would dearly love to get back to helping the boys achieve the goals that they’d set out at the start of the year. At the minute however, I am not up to the level of fitness required and would not like to do the jersey or the team an injustice by taking the field when I know I can’t give my all.”

Having returned to winning ways against Glasgow last weekend, Ulster coach Matt Williams has elected to make just one change for tomorrow night’s final home game of the season.

Joint leading try scorer Darren Cave returns to his customary midfield berth for Cardiff’s visit to Ravenhill, where he will partner Ireland international Paddy Wallace, with youngster Ian Whitten reverting to the replacements bench.

Stephen Ferris, having earned a British & Irish Lions call-up on the back of a stellar campaign, will continue in the backrow after overcoming a hand injury while Tom Court is back among the substitutes as development player Daniel Roach drops out of the squad.

Connacht have yet to finalise their starting XV but coach Michael Bradley named a 23-man squad for their trip to face the Dragons at Rodney Parade with Keith Matthews and Ray Ofisa, both recovered from injury, returning to the fold.

Munster(v Llanelli): P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll (c); A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: D Fogarty, T Buckley, D Ryan, N Ronan, P Stringer, B Murphy, D Hurley

Ulster(v Cardiff): C Schifcofske; S Danielli, D Cave, P Wallace, A Trimble; N O'Connor, P Marshall; B Young, R Best (c), B Botha; C Del Fava, R Caldwell; S Ferris, D Pollock, R Diack. Replacements: N Brady, T Court, M McCullough, C Henry, I Boss, I Whitten, I Humphreys

Connacht squad(v Dragons): L Bibo, A Browne, F Carr, S Cronin, M Deane, G Duffy, A Dunne, A Farley, A Flavin, D Gannon, I Keatley, R Loughney, K Matthews, B McGovern, F Murphy, T Nathan, J O'Connor, R Ofisa, C O'Loughlin, C Rigney, M Swift, N Ta'auso, B Wilkinson.