Thomond cause for concern for IRFU

While the stunning Lansdowne Road design was unveiled yesterday, as pressing a concern for the IRFU remains the development of provincial grounds, and according to the union's chief executive, Philip Browne, this remains "a real problem", especially with regard to Thomond Park.

"Thomond Park as a modern rugby facility has neither the capacity, the facilities nor the revenue-generating potential to make it worth while leaving it the way it is," said Browne. "It has to change."

At a rough estimate, were the existing 14,000 capacity increased to, say, a 25,000 capacity with 15,000 seats, the gate receipts would be almost trebled from around €200,000, but the high cost, running to "millions", of acquiring houses adjacent to the ground doesn't appear to make this very plausible, although the union are waiting for the outcome of a feasibility study on their options in Munster.

"If we can't develop Thomond Park, we'll have to develop somewhere else. And that's it, beginning and end. It's a commercial matter. Professional rugby is not about sentiment. Sentiment has something to with it, but there is a commercial reality. The Munster team costs a lot of money to run, and it gives a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, but if we are to continue to do that, we have to have a facility which provides with the revenues to keep the team afloat."

Some good news for Munster is that Peter Stringer took part in yesterday's training session with coach Declan Kidney refusing to rule him out of contention for their opening Heineken European Cup game, against Sale Sharks at Edgeley Park on Friday. Stringer injured knee ligaments in training a fortnight ago and initial reports indicated he would be out of action for three or four weeks. However, Stringer is ahead of schedule in his recovery and may be included when Kidney names the squad tomorrow (3pm).