Stronger provinces to rotate their squads

RUGBY MAGNERS LEAGUE NEWS:GIVEN THEIR unprecedented strength in depth and in line with the policy of leading French and English clubs, Munster and Leinster are set to rotate their squads for the second round of the Magners League this week.

On a curious opening round without one home win, the disappointment of home defeats for Connacht and Ulster were assuaged to a degree by Leinster's draw away to Cardiff. In perhaps a statement of intent toward this season's Magners League - a competition which Munster haven't won since 2003 - the European champions emerged as the only Irish winners from their difficult trek to Edinburgh.

No less than his Leinster counterpart Michael Cheika, the new Munster head coach Tony McGahan has also expressed his intent to rotate his squad. "We'll be doing a similar sort of thing. Certainly we have a strong squad and we need to keep the squad ticking along. It can't be a closed shop and not only do the coaches believe in all the players but the players believe in each other too.

"We're not going to use the same 16 or 18 players over this first eight-week bloc culminating in the two European games. So there'll be a little bit of rotation but these will be opportunities that are deserved and perhaps more to the point, need to be taken."

With no injuries to report in advance of Sunday evening's game against the Dragons in Cork, McGahan emerged satisfied with the 20-15 win in Edinburgh, even if they didn't press home a winning position in the second period as much as they or he would have liked. "In the first half particularly we showed some good attacking intent but in the second half we fell away a little. I wouldn't say we became negative but we took our foot off the pedal."

Denis Hurley having returned from the Churchill Cup with an injury which delayed his pre-season, McGahan pulled a rabbit out of the hat by naming Doug Howlett at fullback and Keith Earls on the wing when actually playing them the other way round so as not to alert Edinburgh to the 21-year-old Earls making his first competitive start at fullback and perhaps prompt an aerial bombardment.

Earls scored a try and McGahan is pleased with the youngster's progress. "He did some very good things as well as making some defensive and positional errors, and his kicking accuracy needs to improve. But everyone in the coaching staff is pleased with the progress he's making and he's doing everything asked of him."

Whether Earls ultimately establishes himself in his formative position of centre, on the wing (where he's also played a fair amount of his early representative rugby) or at fullback is a riddle to be solved, but McGahan's desire to accommodate him is understandable. "He's a different type of player for us, with his explosiveness and power to hit a defensive line."

Opening nights are rarely fluid affairs, but the vexed ELVs and, even more pertinently, the IRB's guidance on "match protocol" to referees with regard to players not diving in to protect the ball led to a fair old rash of penalties - particularly against the attacking team.

Another area of concern are the lineouts which, with no limits on numbers, have seen teams put in extra defensive pods to destabilise the oppositions' ball.

"The lineouts are barely 50-50 on your own ball now," says McGahan. "It really makes it a difficult platform to launch attacks, and it was such a great platform. Now it's nearly a bit of a dockyard brawl. It's a primary source of possession and if that's taken away it certainly makes it difficult."

In the wake of their defeat at home to Llanelli on Friday night, Ulster coach Matt Williams expressed similar sentiments, declaring that this particular ELV was neither good for the game nor would it come into law.

Meanwhile, another Leinster prop has been injured after Ronnie McCormack sustained an Achilles strain in his first competitive start for over a year and a half. The results of the scan won't be known tomorrow and although Stanley Wright resumed training yesterday, Cian Healy also has a shoulder problem.

Cheika is reasonably confident he'll be able to name three fit props come Friday's game at home to Heineken Cup pool rivals and bugbears Edinburgh, though he admits having Ollie le Roux on standby is helpful.

Also liable to rotate his rich attacking resources after the impacts made off the bench by Girvan Dempsey, especially, and Luke Fitzgerald, with Isa Nacewa making an effective switch to outhalf again, Cheika admits: "It's a bit of a challenge to manage when we have so many players capable of playing at 10 or fullback, and we have to find some combinations as well. But it comes with the territory."

Cheika's options will have been strengthened by the 13-7 success of the Leinster A side in Edinburgh yesterday under Colin McEntee, which was also attended by Leinster's new chief scout, Guy Easterby. "We asked him to focus on a few players and it's a good way for him to start his new role," said Cheika, probably in reference to the likes of Stephen Keogh, Simon Keogh, Brian Blaney, Kevin McLaughlin, Gary Brown, Fergus McFadden and Eoin O'Malley.