RUGBY: A scan on Jim Williams' damaged calf yesterday confirmed that he has suffered a muscle tear which definitely rules the former Wallaby out of Munster's Heineken Cup semi-final against Castres on Saturday.
Against that, the extent of the tear is seemingly not as bad as was first feared (and not on the scale of the similar injury to Keith Wood). Hence, Williams could begin the recovery process in about a fortnight and so a worst-case scenario is that the 32-year-old flanker will regain fitness in time for the Ulster-Munster interprovincial on May 10th, which would constitute a warm-up for the province were they to have reached the Heineken Cup final a fortnight later in Cardiff.
Williams has been an immense physical presence for Munster this season, providing an injection of fresh enthusiasm in their quest for their European Holy Grail, although at least in this area Munster can reunite Alan Quinlan with Anthony Foley and David Wallace in the back row of last season, and Quinlan does add to their lineout.
Munster also have contrasting news regarding their other casualties from last Friday's draw with Leinster, Ronan O'Gara and Paul O'Connell. The former is expected to recover sufficiently from knee and hand injuries to take a full part in training this week, although O'Connell's shoulder injury is causing more concern and hence will require further monitoring during the week.
Although the management and Peter Clohessy have not ruled the veteran prop out of the equation for Saturday's semi-final, Clohessy has hardly trained since the domestic action which resulted in third-degree burns to his arm a fortnight ago. Thus, it's still a forlorn hope he will make it.
Castres, by contrast, look relatively settled and in good shape, having played seven games in the French championship since the European Cup quarter-finals, in which time Munster have played just once. They had been having a dismal time of it, being consigned to the second-tier play-off stages of the French championship, but Castres have virtually removed the threat of relegation already courtesy of last Saturday's 62-21 win at home to Montauban.
This eight-try rout augmented a 58-6 home win over Dax three weeks before, and in between they had a creditable 15-all draw away to Colomiers. The metronomic goalkicker Romain Teulet landed nine from nine and scored a couple of tries for a 30-point haul. As is their wont, Castres replaced their entire front row in the second half.
Levan Tsabadze, their Georgian reserve tight head, is their only concern and so the team should be similar to the starting XV last Saturday: Teulet; Mola, Berryman, Delmotte, Longstaff; Townsend, Albouy; Dima, Ibanez, Moyle, Fernandez Lobbe, Spanghero, Froment, Lassissi, Costes. Their international winger, Ugo Mola, heretofore more of a full back cum outhalf, has emerged as the competition's leading try scorer with seven from seven games on the wing.
"All our minds are focused on Munster now. Being eliminated from the French championship play-offs means that the Heineken Cup really is our objective for the rest of the season," says Mola.
Mola, who played on the Toulouse team which won the inaugural European Cup in 1996 adds: "Playing in the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup is fantastic and playing the final is just as good as playing an international match except that, if you achieve that with your own club, with your friends, it's an even greater feeling. The fact that Toulouse have not won the title since just shows the worth of that first victory.
"Rugby has changed a lot since then. In 1996 we all had jobs, or studied, outside rugby but now only three or four of the Castres players are not fully professional."
For ERC Ltd, the tournament organisers, this Saturday is also a crunch test of their powers given the strong suspicion that Munster have been stitched up for the second year running in the choice of Beziers as a semi-final venue.
Mindful of the appalling lack of facilities for Munster supporters last season, the ERC have moved to ensure against a repeat and their media manager Diarmaid Murphy points out that a hangar outside the ground will cater for 2,000-3,000 supporters from 10 a.m. and that there are eight bars inside the ground which will be open from 1 p.m. (the game kicks off at 3 p.m. local time). There will also be shuttle buses from Beziers' town centre for €1 every 20 minutes.
In one sense, at any rate, ERC have already ensured some of the wrongs of last year's semi-final in Lille cannot be repeated bearing in mind John O'Neill's "try" that wasn't - and to that end Brian Campsall has been appointed the video referee. Chris White will be referee, with Tony Spreadbury and Steve Savage the touch judges.
George Gregan's Wallaby captaincy could be reviewed following allegations he behaved arrogantly as his Brumbies Super 12 team lost to the Waratahs on Saturday. Waratahs coach, Bob Dwyer, slammed Gregan after his side triumphed 19-11. Dwyer observed: "You want players to be feisty, but you don't want them to be arrogant."
At one stage Gregan allegedly told the referee: "Why do you penalise my team? Why do you penalise me? Don't you know we're unpenalisable? We're allowed to do what we like."
