Elwood to succeed Bradley at Connacht

MAGNERS LEAGUE:CONNACHT WILL today confirm Eric Elwood will succeed Michael Bradley as coach at the end of the season.

The former Ireland international outhalf was appointed assistant coach in 2005 on his retirement from playing but will now take over the main role.

Last November Bradley had announced his intention to step down at the end of this campaign after seven seasons in charge and Elwood seemed a logical choice as his successor, especially as the latter has already enjoyed notable success during his time as coach to the Ireland Under-20 team.

In 2007 he led the under-age national side to a Grand Slam in the Six Nations Championship. He was assisted by Dan McFarland – the England-born, former Connacht prop is the forwards coach with the province – who is likely to retain his role next season.

The 41-year-old Elwood recorded 168 appearances for Connacht in 17 seasons. He made his debut against Ulster in 1989 and went on to become a pivotal player before achieving international recognition. He played 35 times for Ireland, scoring 296 points and representing his country in two World Cups.

He was the first player to make 100 appearances for Connacht, reaching the landmark against Narbonne in 2002. He retired at the end of the 2005 season and took up an invitation to become part of the management team. Connacht have called a press conference for 11am today.

They are due to face the second-placed Glasgow Warriors at the Sportsground on Friday night and their opponents have released a 22-man panel for the game. Coach Sean Lineen admitted: “Connacht are on a roll with the way they’re playing right now and they are a hard team to beat at home. We’ve got a group of players here who are hurting after the Cardiff game. They know how our season progresses is in their hands.”

The Warriors were surprisingly thumped by Cardiff in their last outing.

Munster coach Tony McGahan has included Ireland internationals Ronan O’Gara and Tony Buckley in an extended 25-man squad for their Magners League trip to the Dragons on Saturday. Both players, who came off the bench to play influential roles in the Twickenham endgame last Saturday, trained with the rest of the provincial squad in Limerick yesterday.

Munster will be without Donnacha Ryan (dislocated shoulder) and openside flanker Niall Ronan (shoulder) but do welcome back New Zealander Nick Williams, the latter proving his recovery from injury with an impressive performance for Munster A in their British and Irish Cup victory over Newport at the weekend.

Their opponents, the Dragons, can call upon Wales internationals Luke Charteris and Danny Lydiate, who have been released from the national camp to play with their region and coach Paul Turner has also been able to name wing Will Harries in the squad as the latter has returned from sevens duty in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Ulster have confirmed Ireland international prop Tom Court and Scottish wing Simon Danielli have signed new contracts that will keep them in Belfast until at least June, 2012.

Australia-born Court, who was part of Ireland’s Grand Slam winning squad and has already come on off the bench in this season’s Six Nations said: “I am delighted and very, very happy. I have been honest from the start, I have been here for over four years, and I made it clear that I wanted to stay with Ulster.

“I am really pleased that everything is now sorted out. I feel very much at home here, I love the people, I love the rugby and I know this Ulster squad is developing in the right direction. There is some great young talent coming through and I am very positive about the team achieving success in the future.”

The prop had attracted offers from French and English clubs.

Danielli is one of the best finishers in the sport – he is Ulster’s top try scorer this season – and has been a regular try scorer. He too enthused about putting pen to paper.

“I am really pleased to be staying at Ulster, I consider it to be my home now and I am very excited about the next couple of years. I think we have a fantastic group of players and coaches, and I want to contribute to this team winning some silverware.”

Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin announced an extended squad for their visit to Parc y Scarlets from which he’ll confirm a team at lunch-time tomorrow. It contains Andrew Trimble, who came on for the injured Brian O’Driscoll in London at the weekend and Paddy Wallace and Court, both of whom have seen game time with the national side in this Six Nations.

ULSTER SQUAD: T Court, B Young, BJ Botha, D Fitzpatrick, N Brady, A Kyriacou, R Caldwell, E O’Donoghue, D Tuohy, T Anderson, D Pollock, W Faloon, C Henry, R Diack, C Willis, I Boss, P Marshall, I Humphreys, N O’Connor, P Wallace, D Cave, I Whitten, T Nagusa, A Trimble, S Danielli, J Smith, N Spence.

MUNSTER SQUAD: M Horan, J Brugnaut, T Buckley, S Archer, D Varley, D Fogarty, M Sherry, M O’Driscoll, I Nagle, B Holland, A Quinlan, T O’Donnell, N Williams, J Coughlan, D Williams, P Stringer, P Warwick, R O’Gara, S Deasy, J de Villiers, L Mafi, I Dowling, D Howlett, C O’Boyle, Denis Hurley.

NEWPORT-GWENT DRAGONS SQUAD: B Castle, H Gustafson, P Palmer, T Willis, D Goodfield, A Jones, L Charteris , R Sidoli, H Macdonald, L Evans, D Lydiate, G Thomas, J Harris, M Thomas, R Fussell, W Harries, A Brew, T Riley, M Watkins, A Smith, J Tovey, J Arlidge, J Leadbeater, W Evans.

GLASGOW WARRIORS SQUAD: T Barker, J Eddie, C Forrester, C Fusaro, R Gray, D Hall, E Kalman, F Thomson, K Tkachuk, D Turner, R Vernon, J Welsh, A Dunbar, C Gregor, P Horne, R Jackson, D van der Merwe, M McMillan, P Murchie, H O’Hare, C Shaw, B Stortoni.