Ireland to test knock on Wood

Keith Wood will join the Ireland squad when they convene on Sunday for Saturday week's Six Nations Championship match against England despite assertions from his coach at Harlequins, John Kingston, that the Ireland captain could be out of action for another month.

The Ireland management is adamant that Wood will join the rest of the squad and that he will undergo a stringent medical examination on the Monday. Ireland team manager Brian O'Brien admitted in the aftermath of the Wales game last weekend that Wood's presence in the team for Twickenham was "highly unlikely". However, the management are not willing to rule Wood out without a further examination of his calf problem.

The talismanic hooker was not too chipper about his chances of playing but he too isn't going to concede defeat at this juncture. He has been sidelined since Harlequins' English Cup victory over Sale on December 15th and has been frustrated by the amount of time the injury has taken to heal.

Kingston claims that Wood could be out of action until March 9th, a week after the Six Nations game against Scotland at Lansdowne Road: "I can't see any way Keith will be playing for Ireland against England. A few weeks ago he was saying that he couldn't go into an international match without playing a league game first, and that was with six weeks out."

Meanwhile, Munster may have to wait until next week at the earliest to discover where their Heineken Cup semi-final against Castres will take place. European Rugby Cup Ltd official Diarmaid Murphy said: "It certainly won't be confirmed over the next couple of days.

"It could be next week. We are obviously looking to get it done as quickly as possible. We have to take in information and hold discussions with various parties."

The exact dates for the matches also remain something of a mystery, although the early indications are that the Munster-Castres match will take place on Saturday, April 27th, with Leicester's clash against Llanelli 24 hours later.

Quite why it has taken so long to copper-fasten the arrangements, given that ERC has had two weeks since the semi-finalists were known and that there were a finite amount of permutations for "home advantage" is not easily explained.

As far as the Munster match is concerned, the two favoured venues, neither necessarily by the Irish province, are Beziers and Lyon. Castres - they are likely to be supported by the French Rugby Federation - want the match played in Beziers, just 90 minutes away from Castres.

Although the stated capacity of the Stade de la Mediterranee in Beziers is 17,600 (the rules of the competition state that a semi-final ground must have a capacity of 20,000) it did host a Rugby World Cup match in 1999 with a 20,000 capacity and has given an undertaking that limit will be available again.

It would seem ridiculous that Munster's 12th trip to France in European competition should require flying to Montpellier (the nearest airport) and then undertaking a road trip to Beziers, not to mention the inconvenience and financial hardship that it would impose on supporters.

Lyon, the other option, offers a 40,000 capacity at the municipal stadium. The Parc des Princes in Paris, Munster's preferred option, may not be available. According to an ERC source, Paris St Germain are at home that Saturday.

ERC could, of course, order the Munster game to be played on the Sunday, although the tournament organisers are not about to be rushed into a decision.