PAUL O’CONNELL has no doubts but Brian O’Driscoll will make a full recovery and be back in action better than ever after shoulder surgery. Indeed, O’Connell reckons the Ireland captain can benefit from the lay-off and return stronger than ever.

“I have no doubt he will come back, absolutely no doubt,” said the Munster captain. “I suppose it’ll be fun for people to write him off now in the papers or whatever for a few months but I have no doubt he’ll come back.

“It’ll probably do him well. I think sometimes when you are rehabbing injuries all the time it doesn’t do any harm to have something that rules you out for a few months so you can work on a few other things. You can work on your speed, your strength and different thing like that.

“And the break refreshes you and I think there is probably one or two more seasons, no doubt, in him, and I think he’ll probably play all the better for it. That’s his thing, he is mentally very strong and I know it was a struggle for him. I know when I play, I hate to play injured, you want to be 100 per cent all the time. It really rattles you when you are not going out there at 100 per cent.

“It has probably been a tough few months of him like that, but I think it is a great decision for him for his career. I have no doubt with his mental strength and the way he is made up he’ll come back and he will probably have a great finish to his career because of the break.”

O’Connell is focusing on Saturday’s visit of a strong Northampton side to Thomond Park that were desperately unlucky to be pipped by Leinster in last year’s final. And after tasting defeat to Leinster themselves last weekend, Munster head coach Tony McGahan is confident his side can bounce back with a big performance on Saturday – especially in the set-pieces.

“It’s going to be a huge contest this week,” said McGahan. “We know first hand from Northampton two years ago in the two pool games and the quarter-final, and certainly in their progress to get to the final last year, was on the back of the scrum in particular.

“So, it’s going to be a very, very important part of the game and the result will be hanging off the back of that. There are a side that are in your face, they let you know if you have made a mistake. I think the strong thing about Northampton is that they are not a side that beats themselves, they are a well-disciplined side and they limit their mistakes. And if you are going to get a result against them, we certainly know we need to make sure to control our own territory and not give them easy opportunities to kick points and give them easy field possession, because they are a side that feeds off mistakes.”

To secure the win, Munster will need to achieve at least parity in the scrum, and consequently, it will come as some relief to McGahan that BJ Botha has been able to take his place in the squad after the South African tighthead limped off two minutes from time against Leinster.

“He was just really tired. It was that simple, he played a lot of rugby this year and it was very competitive in a very contested game and especially with a sequence of scrums down on the line at the last part.”

With Keith Earls ruled out for the rest of the year with a knee injury and World Cup casualties Jerry Flannery, David Wallace and Felix Jones it is a youthful and inexperienced 23 that McGahan is likely to select. No worries though, he claims. “It is well documented where the squad is and where it is moving to, we can only put 15 on the park and we need everyone to be able to stand on their own two feet and be able contribute to the result. Whether someone is out there in the 15 or the 23 on Saturday they are only there because they can get the job done,” he said.

“You can only deal with what you’ve got, looking through injuries or form or other things like that are outside the group’s control. All we know is we can pick the 15 and pick the 23 and put them on the park and we expect everyone to go out there and get the job done,” added McGahan.

Northampton

Pool One

Castres

Munster

Saturday

Munster v Northampton Saints

Thomond Park, 6pm Sky Sports 1

Scarlets v Castres Olympique

Parc y Scarlets, 3pm

Scarlets