Mark McCall, the Ulster captain and incumbent Irish centre, will definitely miss the remainder of his province's European and Interprovincial campaigns, as well as Ireland's three internationals in November.

The 31-year-old centre has been advised to rest his neck injury until at least November 17th, when he will next meet with his specialist, thereby ruling him out of Ireland's World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Romania on November 14th and 21st, as well as the South African Test on the 28th.

"It's depressing," admitted McCall yesterday, "but hopefully in a couple of months I'll be able to get back training again."

It's an unfortunate blow for the popular Irish centre, not least his province, who are starting to miss his leadership badly. This was compounded in last Friday's 3511 home defeat by Leinster, the nadir of Ulster's season so far, by the 20th minute departure of David Humphreys.

Of some consolation to the province is that Humphreys is confident of being available for Friday's kick-off to the 1998-99 European Cup, when Ulster entertain Edinburgh Reivers on Friday night. His neck injury is not as bad as was initially feared and he said yesterday: "I've been working pretty hard and I should be okay for Friday. It's looking pretty good."

Meanwhile the Munster selectors, after negotiating some choppy waters this season by using 28 players in their last four outings, have predictably applied a steadying hand for their opening European Cup fixture against Padova in Cork on Saturday.

In what is otherwise an unchanged side from that which accounted for Connacht last Saturday, they have left a vacancy at right-wing which will be filled by either John Kelly or John Lacey, pending a fitness check on the former's knee injury which ruled him out of the Connacht game. Lacey was restored and rounded off the win with a late try, his ninth in 10 outings for the province, but his defensive weaknesses are seemingly still counting against him.

Manager Jerry Holland conceded that last Saturday's victory, following successive losses to Leinster and Munster, was "a timely fillip. In any side there's a danger you can get into a rut over a losing sequence and for the players' especially it was hugely beneficial. Although even they admit they were still some way short of 100 per cent."

Indeed, even the nucleus of the side have struggled to recognise themselves while watching video re-runs of some of last year's comparatively exuberant Euro performances against the likes of Harlequins and Cardiff. And to a large degree it is the same side, with 11 of this selection having concluded last year's campaign with the home win over Harlequins, but as Holland counters: "there's a danger of looking back too much and getting yourself further into a rut. There's times to wipe the slate clean and look at it from a very positive point of view."

Holland believes that there has been comparatively "huge pressure in the interpros" whereas the advent of the European Cup may see a less pressurised environment and a return of some of the old fluidity. Though he didn't mention it, foreign referees as well as foreign opposition may contribute to this.

On paper, at any rate, Munster have been given a more favourable draw than the last two years when they were thrown into comparative `groups of death.' That said, Holland went to Italy on Sunday to witness Padova rattling up over 100 points on Modena in a bit of a "mis-match."

"But, while one can question the quality of the opposition it does give you an indication of the calibre of the side you're up against. Padova are a very impressive side, who have beaten the likes of Milan to become one of the top two sides in Italy. They have two New Zealanders and, as you'd expect, a very strong French influence with a similar French style."

"We've also seen the strides made by the Italian national side and you're not going to get any easy games against their top provincial sides. They're a very good, organised, polished outfit."

A gnawing concern is the enforced absence of Munster's one long-term casualty, centre Rhys Ellison. Encouragingly, though, the influential New Zealand centre is being pencilled in for a return against Perpignan on October 10th, or possibly the home interprovincial against Ulster the week before.

Another undermining factor is the unavailability of Thomond Park (where Munster have never lost a European game) for their opening two home matches. The ground is being refurbished and in the interim Munster will play at Musgrave Park in Cork.

Leinster are expected to announce a squad today but will probably not finalise their line-up for Saturday's match in Llanelli - who have never lost a European match in Stradey Park - until the day of the game.

Their primary concern is tighthead Angus McKeen, who sustained a calf muscle injury in the warm-up before last Friday's 3511 win in Ravenhill. Reggie Corrigan came through Monday night's training session and could be a contender for a place on the bench.

The situation about sponsorship and television coverage of this season's European Cup is still unclear, especially with regard to Scotland and Ireland. Sky Sports have, as expected, withdrawn their annual coverage - believed to be in excess of £4 million per annum - in the light of the English clubs' withdrawal, so leaving ERC Ltd to negotiate separate contracts with national terrestrial broadcasting stations.

FR2 will again foot a large part of the competition's costs by providing coverage in France, while BBC Wales are also believed to be on board. RTE, after their heavy outlay for a new Saturday night English soccer package, have made enquiries but a spokesperson could only say "things may become a little clearer over the next 24 hours."

Munster: D Crotty; AN Other, B Walsh, M Lynch, A Horgan; K Keane, T Tierney; P Clohessy, M McDermott, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), S Leahy, A Quinlan, A Foley, E Halvey. Replacements: I Murray, F Sheehan, D Wallace, D Corkery, B O'Meara, R O'Gara, Cian Mahony.

Rugby union is to follow cricket and rugby league by using television replays to rule on controversial decisions. A pilot scheme will be operated by the South African Rugby Football Union, in co-operation with local sports channel Supersport, in which a fourth official will use replays during an under-21 game on Saturday between Golden Lions and Western Province in Johannesburg.