Penney confident Conor Murray will not be sanctioned at hearing

Munster coach Rob Penney believes that his scrum-half Conor Murray will not be sanctioned when he appears before a disciplinary committee in Cardiff today.

The Irish international was cited following Munster's 13-6 win over Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun for allegedly striking with the elbow.

Glasgow replacement scrum-half Nikola Matawalu will also appear before the same RaboDirect PRO12 disciplinary committee having been cited for biting.

Penney said yesterday he does not think that Murray faces any disciplinary measure. “I don’t think he has anything to answer for myself,” he said.

And Penney said that he is hopeful that lock forward Donnacha Ryan, who has been linked with a move to France having attended Perpigan’s home game at the weekend, will be retained by Munster.

Ryan’s presence at the Stade Aime Giral for Perpignan’s 31-20 win over Bordeaux has sparked speculation that the Tipperary man, who is out of contract at the end of the season, could be the latest Irish player to head to France.

Munster will play Perpignan twice in December in the Heineken Cup. Penney said yesterday that it was only natural that the 29-year old, who is out injured for up to nine weeks with a knee injury, would consider all his options.

“Donnacha we know is involved in contractual discussions, that can take an individual on all sorts of pathways.

"We would be very hopeful that Donnacha would recommit to Irish rugby and Munster rugby and, you know, the visit to Perpignan as a young man with a lot of experience obviously is looking to potentially spread his wings, so who knows?" said Penney.

Clash with Ospreys
The Munster coach, who has no new injury worries as he prepares for the top of the table clash with Ospreys on Saturday night, praised the way emerging outhalf JJ Hanrahan bounced back from his catastrophic mistake in the Heineken Cup against Edinburgh to deliver a man of the match performance in the win in Glasgow at the weekend.

“It was very pleasing, I thought the way the management group handled that situation was a bit special as well.

“On the back of the Conor Murray experience last year, the group did a great job of not putting on any extra pressure and letting the young man deal with it in his own way and learning and maturing.

“The exact same thing this year when JJ just had a whoops. From those experiences you go one way or the other you know. You flourish or dig yourself a deeper hole and disappear and both those lads have shown tremendous commitment and fortitude and are flourishing on the back of a learning opportunity.

“I’ve credited the management group but also the group of players around them,” added Penney.

Felix Jones and Luke O'Dea may come back into the reckoning this weekend as they continue to recover from injury as Munster bid to hold top spot going into the November break.

“We have an opportunity to finish this block with a home game and something to prove given we have struggled against Ospreys, particularly last year, so we have a good opportunity to put on a good performance.”