RUGBY:DECLAN KIDNEY yesterday went through the ritual of effectively naming every fit and plausible contender bar the team's chef for Munster's latest Heineken European Cup epic in waiting, away to Gloucester in Saturday's quarter-final.
Casting an eye through the 27 players named, however, shows Munster approach this game in relatively rude health and with the head coach facing the most difficult of his seven quarter-final selections, not least in his choice of replacements.
"I've never found any of them particularly easy, even one phone call," admitted Kidney with a sigh at the squad's base in the University of Limerick yesterday. "So you have to have this choice, and yet the more choices you have the more phone calls you have to make. But then again, the standard in the competition is just getting like that. I'm sure Dean Ryan (his Gloucester counterpart) is over there wondering which of his (three international) hookers to phone, which of his scrumhalves to phone.
"If we didn't have this strength we wouldn't be where we are now. I've absolutely no doubt about that and to think otherwise would be foolish. And to do it with so many indigenous players makes us a little bit different from most of the other teams in the competition; certainly the remaining teams."
To underline his point, no doubt mindful of the criticism for playing three Southern Hemisphere imports across his three-quarter line, 20 of the squad could be classed as indigenous, with all but five Irish qualified, and all told 17 are internationals.
Perming three from five in his backrow will, as ever, be one of the most difficult challenges for the Munster brains trust, the likelihood being Niall Ronan will miss out and Anthony Foley may have to settle for a place on the bench in deference to the Alan Quinlan, Denis Leamy and David Wallace axis.
Fullback has also emerged as an issue given Kidney's surprising decision to play Denis Hurley there in the last two outings, against Ulster and Connacht, while Shaun Payne - as solid as the proverbial rock in all manner of climatic and climactic conditions through the pool matches - was confined to a full outing with UL Bohemian last weekend. "We'll just have to wait and see," said Kidney, revealing as ever.
But the expectation must be he will opt for the more experienced man in such a cauldron when push comes to shove, and that the only change from the starting team that kicked off the pool finale against Wasps will see the return of Paul O'Connell at lock.
Kidney, typically, had the statistics at his fingertips to underline what a daunting task faces his team on Saturday. Not alone have Gloucester twice beaten Munster at Kingsholm, but only 25 per cent of 44 European Cup quarter-finals have been won by away sides.
As ever though, he is seeking to turn a potential negative into a positive when analysing the supposedly mystical atmosphere generated by The Shed: "You have to start looking forward to it and not let it consume you. If you go into it fearing it, then it can just consume you and the game can pass you by.
"But if you go into it saying 'aren't these the days I do all the training for, these are the days I look forward to' . . . but it's going to be difficult. We have no doubts about that. All you have to do is look at our last two scores there."
Indeed - 35-16 in 2002-2003, and 22-11 the following season.
Even Gloucester's injury-time defeat to Worcester last weekend can, he ventured, "be a wake-up call too", akin to Munster being mugged in the last play in Cardiff and responding with a six-try salvo next time out.
Putting in context an expansive description of Gloucester's strengths - a strong scrum, ball handlers across the pitch, a counterattacking back three - he admitted Munster could scarcely repeat "the near 20 turnovers" of the Ulster match, à la the pool defeat in Clermont, against a team that "scores 25 per cent of its tries from turnovers".
For all that, there was an unmistakeable spring in his demeanour, which comes from having been here so many times before.
"There's always a little bit more of an adrenalin flow the week of a Heineken Cup match," he admitted. "Whatever it is about us here, but it just seems to get the blood flowing that little bit faster.
"And then when you consider how hard the boys have worked to get here you want to give it your best shot."
MUNSTER SQUAD
Forwards: John Hayes, Marcus Horan, Tony Buckley, Federico Pucciariello, Jerry Flannery, Frank Sheahan, Paul O'Connell (capt), Donncha O'Callaghan, Donnacha Ryan, Mick O'Driscoll, Alan Quinlan, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Anthony Foley, Niall Ronan. Backs: Shaun Payne, Denis Hurley, Doug Howlett, Kieran Lewis, Rua Tipoki, Lifeimi Mafi, Brian Carney, Ian Dowling, Paul Warwick, Ronan O'Gara, Tomás O'Leary, Peter Stringer.
