Hayes set to resume training

RUGBY:Munster coach Declan Kidney received mixed news yesterday with regard to the make-up of the squad that will face the French side Clermont Auvergne next Sunday in the second match of their Heineken European Cup campaign.

Kidney's concern, following their narrow defeat to Wasps at the weekend, centred on his international prop John Hayes, who sustained a neck injury and departed the match five minutes before half-time. The good news is that the injury has not deteriorated and Hayes, after some few days' rest, is expected to take part in team training tomorrow.

Ian Dowling, who was forced off the bench when he felt ill on the morning of the match and then failed to improve, has also recovered and is expected to take full part in training.

But the news on Peter Stringer's deputy Tomás O'Leary is not so good. The utility player, who came on as a replacement for fullback Shaun Payne in the dying minutes of Saturday's game, has come down with pneumonia and is expected to be out of the game for three weeks.

Paul O'Connell's back continues to prevent him from playing, though with Mick O'Driscoll playing his part on Saturday as well as nicking the odd Wasps lineout, Kidney will be well pleased with the form and competitive instincts of his stand-in secondrow.

All in all then, he is without only O'Leary for the Thomond Park game, which starts in early afternoon because of the redevelopment of the stadium; there are no floodlights in the Limerick ground.

It is not the aspect of Leinster's game that usually receives praise but the former coach of Argentina and current Leicester Tigers coach, Marcelo Loffreda, picked out the province's defence as the part of their game that earned them victory in their first European Cup Pool Six campaign at the RDS on Saturday.

Loffreda should know about the semi-destructive part of the game. He made his Pumas side into one of the most miserly at the World Cup. And so his praise for Leinster's doggedness after his first European Cup match is worth something.

But he also vowed his side would improve as the competition advances. Michael Cheika's Leinster don't meet Leicester again until the Welford Road showdown in round six of the competition in January.

"We had a lot of pressure but Leinster played very well," said Loffreda. "They were very efficient when we had the ball. We were not so bright in the first half and we didn't use the wind as well as we should have.

"Leinster did that quite well in the second half and I think that was a big difference.

"We got a bit repetitive in our game so we maybe have to change some things for next week. I know the spirit of the players, I know their attitude and I know they will react."

While prop Stephen Knoop may come back into contention for this week's visit to Toulouse, Cheika may well feel his troops did enough to stay intact for another week. There have been no serious injuries reported, and though the winger Rob Kearney went down with cramp, he is expected to be available.

Bernard Jackman, as befits his combative style, was again in the wars on Saturday, but though he left the field for a time, he will also be fit and ready for what is expected to be another tough encounter for Leinster.

Meanwhile speculation continues as to the future of Ulster coach Mark McCall as the Irish winger Andrew Trimble compared the province's current plight to Ireland's World Cup misery. Neither McCall, who did not show for the standard post-match press conference following the province's five-try defeat by Gloucester last Friday night, nor his Ulster Branch employers have made any public comment since. Ulster suffered a 32-14 defeat at Ravenhill.

The Belfast Telegraph yesterday suggested the coach's four-year tenure was drawing to a close. With just one win from seven competitive games this season, and following on from a poor second half of last season in which Ulster lost eight of their last 12 games, McCall has come under increasing pressure to get a performance from his team.

Trimble's comment will hardly help the situation.

"It is very difficult to see how this run is going to end," said Trimble, who like many of the Irish players had a difficult tournament in France.

"It feels like it is the World Cup all over again, with things not going our way. We haven't got confidence at the minute and the Gloucester result is not going to do that any good."

The Ulster lock Tim Barker will link up with the former Ulster stalwart Jeremy Davidson at the French club Castres.

Davidson, who played in Castres before retiring, recently secured a coaching role. Barker returned to Ulster last year after a spell with Glasgow Warriors.