Munster must plan without O'Callaghan

DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN is a notable exclusion from the Munster squad to face Edinburgh on Friday night in Musgrave Park despite joining his provincial teammates at a week-long warm weather training camp at Club La Santa in Lanzarote.

The Ireland management confirmed O’Callaghan has yet to recover from knee ligament damage sustained against Northampton on January 22nd.

Having missed the Italy and France games, there remains hope that the 30-year-old, 58-times capped lock will be available to play in Twickenham on Saturday week when Ireland resume their defence of the Six Nations championship.

Leinster captain Leo Cullen was promoted to the starting XV in O’Callaghan’s absence, while Donnacha Ryan won two caps off the bench. Shannon lock Ryan is back on provincial duty this week – like all seven Irish replacements.

The starting XV from Paris are attending a mini-camp in Cork today and tomorrow but will be rested this weekend.

Munster arrive home today, with Marcus Horan due more valuable game time at loosehead prop but long-term casualties Denis Leamy (knee), Darragh Hurley (eye), Felix Jones (neck) and Damien Varley (shoulder, four to six weeks) were not considered. Kiwi backrower Nick Williams is back training.

“Being out here in these conditions allows us get in quality training that may not always be possible at home,” said Munster coach Tony McGahan from Lanzarote.

“We’ve managed good intensity sessions twice a day since we’ve been here and there’s also been the social interaction, so vital in a group this size that we don’t see back home, given the squad is divided between Limerick and Cork.

“So all in all I’d be more than pleased with the exercise and I think it will stand us in good stead in the coming Magners League weeks and the closing stages of the season.”

Leinster coach Michael Cheika has promoted 18-year-old Andrew Conway to the senior squad for Saturday’s match against the Scarlets at the RDS Showgrounds after some impressive performances at fullback for the Ireland under-20s.

Twelve months ago Conway was lining out for Blackrock College in the Leinster Schools Cup, putting his rapid progress on a par with that of Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney in recent seasons.

“The only player who is a long -term doubt is Luke Fitzgerald and he wouldn’t have been in the national team anyway, so it is probably about as good a complement as we could have at this stage of the season,” said Cheika.

“Kevin McLaughlin, Seán O’Brien, Shane Jennings, Eoin Reddan and Jonathan Sexton will all be involved.”

The Scarlets game represents a particularly significant platform for halfbacks Reddan and Sexton, to press their claims to start against England.

The same can be said about Ulster hooker Rory Best, depending on the results of Jerry Flannery’s disciplinary hearing this afternoon. It would be a remarkable return for one of the vice-captains in the Ireland squad as Best was informed last summer a neck operation would rule him out for the season. He has yet to start for Ulster and only featured in a recent A international against the English Saxons.

Andrew Trimble also returns, having missed the French match with a hamstring strain. The other recent Irish replacements in Brian McLaughlin’s squad are prop Tom Court and centre Paddy Wallace.

“The Dragons are on the same league points as us, they have won five and lost five, and they got one over on us in the first game of the season, in Wales, so we owe them one this Friday night,” said McLaughlin.

“We must keep the ball in hand and play some strong running rugby. The players have been training hard over the Six Nations break and are eager to get a good match under their belts.”

Finally, British and Irish Lions scrumhalf Mike Philips returns, after a four month lay-off with a serious ankle injury, for the Ospreys against Connacht, in a rare live televised match for the western province, at Liberty Stadium on Sunday.

Conor O’Loughlin looks certain to start at scrumhalf for Connacht as Frank Murphy (calf) and Kieran Campbell (shoulder) have injury concerns. Secondrow Andrew Browne is another doubt with an ankle problem.

Weekend squads

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

MUNSTER:C O'Boyle, S Deasy, D Hurley, D Howlett, I Dowling, T Gleeson, L Mafi, J de Villiers, P Warwick, D Williams, P Stringer, B Holland, J Coughlan, N Ronan, T O'Donnell, A Quinlan, I Nagle, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, M Sherry, D Fogarty, Dave Ryan, T Buckley, J Brugnaut, M Horan.

LEINSTER:J Fogarty, T Hogan, B Jackman, S Jennings, S Keogh, R McCormack, K McLaughlin, S O'Brien, M O'Kelly, M Ross, P Ryan, E Sheriff, R Strauss, D Toner, CJ van der Linde, S Wright, S Berne, A Conway, G Dempsey, S Horgan, C Keane, D Kearney, S Keogh, I Madigan, F McFadden, I Nacewa, P O'Donohoe, E O'Malley, E Reddan, J Sexton.