Glasgow 15

Leinster 18

Murray Kinsella reports from Celtic Park

IT REQUIRED A steely final defensive stand but Leinster got over the line to secure back-to-back Guinness Pro14 titles by overcoming Dave Rennie’s Glasgow Warriors in front of 47,125 people, a new record final attendance for the championship.

Leinster celebrate Garry Ringrose’s try. Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO

The Warriors scored a 75th-minute try to bring themselves to within three points but Leinster had built just enough of a lead to allow themselves to end their season with silverware.

Teeming rain in Glasgow made conditions difficult and it was a day for the forwards to excel, with vice-captain Rhys Ruddock, the relentless James Ryan and try-scoring man of the match Cian Healy leading the way in that regard as Leinster’s pack muscled up impressively.

Leinster had to survive a yellow card to fullback Rob Kearney with 15 minutes remaining – Glasgow fans felt it should have been red for taking out Stuart Hogg in the air – but their experience and nous over the course of the 80 minutes was just about greater than Glasgow’s.

Centre Garry Ringrose grabbed Leinster’s other try from a Luke McGrath blockdown of Hogg, helping Leinster into a 15-10 lead at half-time. 

Leo Cullen’s men scored only three thereafter but they won’t care after lifting the Pro14 trophy on Glaswegian soil, Leinster’s sixth title in the competition leaving them two clear of Ospreys.

Having felt the deep disappointment of a Champions Cup final defeat to Saracens only two weekends ago, this was a fitting way for Cullen and Stuart Lancaster’s team to finish off their campaign.

Glasgow’s wait for their first title since 2015 goes on and they will have regrets about a second-half yellow card to centre Kyle Steyn, as well as their inability to threaten in attack in the second 40 until too late.

Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

Both teams kicked well in a frenetic opening stanza and it was Leinster who had the first chance of the game when Glasgow loosehead Jamie Bhatti went off his feet at breakdown time.

Sexton had a 38-metre penalty from straight in front of the posts, but with Glasgow fans booing as the out-half lined it up, he missed wide to the right to let the Warriors off the hook.

Two minutes later, Sexton threw an inside pass just too low in front of Jack Conan on the Glasgow 22 after a scything Leinster break, started by Rhys Ruddock’s awareness and continued by Garry Ringrose, who sent Sexton racing to into the Glasgow half.

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Leinster might have felt Fraser Brown should have been sin-binned for an off-the-ball hit into the back of Luke McGrath in behind a lineout soon after, but referee Nigel Owens judged that it was a penalty only after a TMO review.

The game then swung firmly in Glasgow’s favour as Sexton threw another loose pass to ground, the ricocheting ball bobbling up to Tommy Seymour, requiring Robbie Henshaw to make an excellent tackle near halfway to prevent a breakaway score.

But Adam Hastings cleverly kicked the ball into touch in the Leinster 22 on the next phase, where Jonny Gray stole a lineout and Glasgow went into a powerful multi-phase passage. Lock Scott Cummings’ carry gave them real momentum and it was number eight Matt Fagerson who picked and burrowed over to score on the next phase, Hastings converting.

Glasgow celebrate Matt Fagerson’s try. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

Leinster’s reply was instantaneous, however, as McGrath blocked down Stuart Hogg’s attempted clearing kick from the restart, with the ball bouncing wide right into the in-goal area, where Ringrose surged forward to ground it. 

Sexton couldn’t convert and Cullen’s men were further behind within six minutes, Ringrose’s missed tackle on opposite number Kyle Steyn allowing Glasgow to break back into Leinster’s 22.

Jordan Larmour and Rob Kearney did well to prevent DTH van der Merwe from scoring off that Steyn break, before Hastings opted to carry into Sexton’s tackle when a pass might have resulted in a try. There was offside advantage playing, though, and Hastings slotted the three for a 10-5 lead.

Leinster had an attacking passage halted in the 26th minute when Glasgow hooker Fraser Brown suffered a serious left leg injury while jackaling in a ruck, forcing him to be stretchered off, but they showed controlling and suffocating quality on resumption.

It was a 17-phase sequence that ended with Cian Healy picking and carrying through Rob Harley for Leinster’s second try, ably assisted by a typically good Scott Fardy latch, with Sexton able to convert this time to put the Irish province into the lead for the first time.

A scrum penalty for Leinster allowed Sexton to extend that advantage to 15-10 in the 36th minute, ignoring more boos to hammer his kick over from 45 metres out.

Cian Healy barges over for his first-half try. Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO

And the visitors muscled up defensively in the closing stages of the half to keep that lead intact, first forcing Harley to knock-on and then with Larmour shoving van der Merwe into touch with the final play of the half. 

Another deluge of rain at half-time made ball-handling even trickier in the second half with both teams losing the ball forward in the early exchanges. 

Hogg’s dancing feet took him pass Fardy and into the Leinster 22 in the 49th minute as Glasgow built ominously before Ali Price’s loose pass to ground suddenly allowed Leinster to counter as Ringrose pounced on the ball.

The midfielder glided up into Glasgow territory and flicked a pass to the hard-working James Lowe on his inside. Though Lowe was grounded, Steyn didn’t roll away of the tackle and was deservedly binned by Owens for killing Leinster’s momentum.

Cullen’s men went to the corner with that penalty and looked to barge their way over again, winning a penalty under the sticks as Harley failed to release after a tackle. Despite their numerical advantage, Leinster opted to take the points and open up an eight-point gap thanks to Sexton’s straightforward shot at goal.

Leinster began to turn the screw, with Sexton a superb grubber asking Glasgow to run the ball out of their in-goal area, only for Henshaw and Ryan to hammer Gibbins in the tackle for a five-metre scrum. 

Leinster celebrate Garry Ringrose’s try. Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO

A penalty at that scrum allowed Steyn to come back on after his 10 minutes in the bin but rather than taking the chance to extend their lead to 11 points, Leinster opted to pack down again, clearly eager to finish the Warriors off.

Three scrum resets ensued before Leinster finally played off the back of the set-piece, only for scrum-half McGrath to knock-on at the base of a ruck two phases later.  

Glasgow then won a penalty at the ensuing scrum and suddenly the doubts over Leinster opting not to take their points rose.

Those concerns only grew in the 66th minute when Kearney chased his own garryowen and clumsily collided with Hogg as the Glasgow fullback lept to gather the kick. Replays appeared to show Hogg’s head making contact with the ground but Owens decided only to yellow-card the Leinster man, much to the Warriors fans’ anger.

Glasgow, aiming to seize the momentum, mauled into the Leinster 22 from the penalty but Ringrose and Henshaw combined for a choke tackle turnover on Steyn, before the Leinster scrum – with a new front row of Ed Byrne, Bryan Byrne and Andrew Porter – won a big penalty to allow Sexton to relieve the pressure.

Leinster attempted to run the clock down with their next possession, grinding at Glasgow on their 22 but eventually the Warriors manufactured themselves a turnover to allow themselves back on the attack.

The Scots thrust forward with intent, replacement Huw Jones cutting through Leinster and laying the platform for Peter Horne and Matt Fagerson to send sub hooker Grant Stewart down the right touchline to finish in the right corner.

Hastings couldn’t convert from wide out, leaving the Warriors trailing 18-15 with just four minutes left. But they knocked-on with their final possession, allowing Leinster to wind the closing seconds down and boot the ball off the field to spark the celebrations.

Glasgow scorers:

Tries: Matt Fagerson, Grant Stewart

Conversions: Adam Hastings [1 from 2]

Penalties: Adam Hastings [1 from 1]

Leinster scorers:

Tries: Garry Ringrose, Cian Healy

Conversions: Johnny Sexton [1 from 2]

Penalties: Johnny Sexton [2 from 3]

GLASGOW WARRIORS: Stuart Hogg (Huw Jones ’66); Tommy Seymour, Kyle Steyn (yellow card ’49), Sam Johnson (Pete Horne ’56), DTH van der Merwe; Adam Hastings, Ali Price (George Horne ’58); Jamie Bhatti (Oli Kebble ’53), Fraser Brown (Grant Stewart ’26), Zander Fagerson (Siua Halanukonuka ’68); Scott Cummings, Jonny Gray; Rob Harley (Ryan Wilson ’53), Callum Gibbins (captain) (Tom Gordon ’78), Matt Fagerson.

LEINSTER: Rob Kearney (yellow card ’66); Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Johnny Sexton (captain) (Ross Byrne ’74), Luke McGrath (Nick McCarthy ’76); Cian Healy (Ed Byrne ’63), Sean Cronin (Bryan Byrne ’64), Tadhg Furlong (Andrew Porter ’64); Scott Fardy, James Ryan; Rhys Ruddock (Ross Molony ’78, Josh van der Flier (Max Deegan ’74), Jack Conan.

Replacements: Rory O’Loughlin.

Referee: Nigel Owens [WRU].

MUNSTER HOPE WORK on a new indoor training facility at Musgrave Park will commence by the end of this year after the province today received planning permission from Cork City Council.

The new facility will be located at the Pearse Road end of Musgrave Park and will be built primarily for Munster’s underage sides, in addition to local schools and clubs. 

Musgrave Park in Cork. Source: Bryan Keane/INPHO

While the cost of the project has not been outlined by the province, the facility will house a synthetic all-weather playing surface, a gym, dressing rooms, treatment rooms, a kitchen and public toilets.

The plans show the indoor pitch will be 60×40 metres in size, while a new single-storey ticketing booth and increased parking for both cars and buses are planned for the Cork venue.    

Munster, whose senior team are based at their high-performance centre at the University of Limerick, have made an application to the large-scale sports infrastructure fund for the project, and say construction will commence by the end of 2019 or early 2020.

“We want a high-quality hub for provincial rugby and a superb facility for our surrounding community and that’s exactly what we’re going to bring for the region,” Munster’s acting CEO, Philip Quinn, said. 

“We want to engage with our local community and our 3G pitch has hosted all sorts of events in a number of different sports, not just rugby, since it opened last year.

“Long-term, we see Musgrave Park as being a municipal stadium, open to all. Rugby will always be number one here but let’s engage, let’s get people in here to what is a fantastic sporting facility.”

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SIX NATIONS PREPARATION has already started for Joe Schmidt’s Ireland squad.

The Kiwi serial winner convened a group of international players in Carton House yesterday to look ahead to a new look Championship which begins in Murrayfield next month.

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Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

The date in the diary was enough to convince Josh van der Flier into an “early night” on Saturday. New Year’s Eve and a win over Ulster weren’t worth lengthy celebrations and he instead set his mind to a sit-down Sunday with Ireland plays and calls.

It’s a sign of a union employing joined-up thinking, keeping players up to speed with the national team so that they don’t feel bombarded when the Test window rolls around.

For provinces though, it’s another chunk of time lost when, ideally, they would like to be perfecting their own playing structures.

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen spent a fair chunk of his New Year’s Eve media minutes pointing out the ring-rust that was partly the reason behind their failure to turn a dominant three-try performance over 42 minutes into a bonus point win over Ulster.

Les Kiss’ men, for their part, improved drastically after a calamitous first-half to dominate territory and win the second half make the final score a respectable 22 – 7.

“The problem was a lot of our possession was in our 22,” Cullen said of the second-half siege.

“So we had to relieve pressure. But we definitely lacked composure. You get that when guys are a bit rusty and we’re still working on various combinations.

Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO

“We hadn’t a huge amount of prep time coming into this game. We’re coming off a five-day turnaround, we’re reshuffling the team. There’s plenty of challenges at this time of year, you’re expecting to be ‘not perfect’.”

Two games into a run of three matches in 11 days, Cullen’s thoughts quickly turned to Friday’s meeting with Zebre at the RDS. He will lose a large contingent of his squad in body and mind to Carton House, but some will be allowed filter back in as he attempts to sync units and combinations up before the resuming the chase for a Champions Cup home quarter-final with Montpellier’s visit to Dublin.

“We’re in a seven-game block, but it’s not like a seven-game block where we’re all together. There’s chopping and changing in the middle of that.

“At some point during the year we need to build and get continuity. Because guys came off November (internationals), came back in, some of them hadn’t played. You’re into two huge European games, there’s games going on, you’re managing guys’ time off here and there – that’s the challenge we face.

“There’s 22 Pro12 games, six European games, so we try to get all hands on deck making sure everyone is clear on what we’re trying to do. Because we’re still a bit off in terms of having that real clarity of purpose. But we’ll get there.”

Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

Whether Cullen will have Jonathan Sexton back in harness to help force that clarity is still less than concrete. Following November, Leinster coaches have consistently said the out-half’s situation is ‘day-to-day’, but the hinted return points have stretched from Northampton to Christmas inter-pros and now we’re into 2017 with the head coach quickly brushing past the subject of the Lions 10 to talk up the man in possession of the jersey.

“We’re hopeful, but Ross (Byrne) has gone well. That’s another real positive step. It’s a big ask for Ross backing up such a physical game last week.

“It’s a huge step up for a guy like Ross. He’s still in the academy, stepping into the senior squad next year. I thought he acquitted himself really well, you could see he started to cramp at the end. He had another tough 70 minutes tonight, I thought he’s gone really well.

“He’s very driven. Works hard and he’s hungry to be successful both personally and for the team. He’s been in the building a few years now. He’s pushing hard, had a bit of a taste of it (first-team action) last year. And I think the more players get a taste of it, the more comfortable they get and the more they want to stay there.”

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ROSS FORD, SCOTLAND’S record appearance maker, has retired from rugby as he plans to go into coaching.

It was confirmed in April that the hooker, who won 110 caps for his country, would be leaving club side Edinburgh at the end of the 2018/19 season.

And on Thursday, Scottish Rugby revealed Ford’s plans to move into strength and conditioning coaching, helping young players in the Scottish Borders.

“I always enjoyed the S&C side of things. It was always a big part of my game and it was something I was good at,” Ford said.

“Later in my career I took a big interest in it and it became something I wanted to do after I finished playing, so I was really keen when this opportunity came up, especially being a Borders lad as well.

“I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had a long career in the sport and have been able to represent my country at the highest level, playing in a lot of great places around the world.

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THE LAST TIME we saw Sean Cronin in green was back in Rome in February, the hooker’s first Six Nations start for Ireland not going as planned, so much so that he was the fall guy for a horribly poor team performance.

From the starting XV at the Stadio Olimpico, Cronin was, not for the first time under Joe Schmidt, unceremoniously cast aside for the final two weeks of Ireland’s sorry Six Nations campaign. 

Cronin during Friday’s open session at Thomond Park. Source: James Crombie/INPHO

While Cronin rebounded strongly from the disappointment of being dropped by Ireland to help Leinster to their second successive Guinness Pro14 title, it would be understandable if the 33-year-old felt he has something of a point to prove. Again.

Recalled to Ireland’s extended World Cup training panel, Cronin has put the head down in camp over the last four weeks as he faces direct competition from Niall Scannell and Rob Herring to get on the plane to Japan alongside captain Rory Best.

Even with 68 caps — and two World Cups — to his name, Cronin is taking nothing for granted this time around as the competition for places in Schmidt’s squad cranks up a gear with the first of the warm-up games on the horizon.

“I don’t think what I’ve done before will stand to me [for selection], because what the coaches are saying is they’re not looking back, they’re looking forward,” Cronin says.

“I’m just trying to put in as much effort as I can. If I get an opportunity in those [warm-up] games, I know it’s going to be a limited window for me to play well and I probably have to do a bit more than I did the last game. It’s going to be a big opportunity for me if I get the chance.”

With Conor O’Shea’s Italy first up at the Aviva Stadium on 10 August, Cronin would relish the chance to pull on the green jersey again and ‘right the wrongs’ from last time out.

“I suppose as a professional you always have a point to prove,” he continued. “That’s kind of the way I’ve been looking at things. You need to have that bouncebackability. That’s the great thing about professional sport, hopefully get another chance and if things don’t work out, put the wrongs right and that’s all you can do.”

The competition for places in Ireland’s squad, not just at hooker but across every position, has resulted in the levels of intensity during the first block of training go through the roof as players bid to stake their claim for selection.

Cronin endured a tough 73 minutes against Italy back in February. Source: James Crombie/INPHO

With the focus on strength and conditioning work during the week-long camps in Carton House, Galway and Limerick, the 45-man panel have been pushed to their limits by the coaches, with Cronin admitting it has been the toughest block he’s ever experienced as a professional.

“Yeah, it’s tough, even the weight sessions are pretty intense,” the hooker explained.

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“They’re challenging, but they’re good. The coaches are getting the best out of us and lads are enjoying it, especially when Friday lunchtime comes and we get to go home with a good week behind you. 

After a down week, Ireland will continue their preparations at the IRFU’s new facility at Abbotstown, where the focus will shift to rugby-based training ahead of that first summer outing against Italy at the start of next month.

Cronin knows better than most that the schedule of four warm-up games will be crucial when Schmidt has to whittle down his squad to 31 for Japan.

“I don’t think there are many World Cup squads around that you have your 31 guys solidified, so lads are competing out there and trying to put their best foot forward to get that spot on the plane,” he added.

“I was obviously at the ones in 2011 and 2015 and this has probably been the most competitive squad I’ve been in. It’s going to be tough to get in.

“That Abbotstown week is going to be big in terms of building the set-piece and breakdown. Any guys who get an opportunity to play in that first game is going to get a massive chance to put their first stamp on trying to get selected for Japan.”

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MATTHEW WILKIE DESCRIBES himself as a “curious learner” and it’s an element of his personality that appears to make him ideally suited for his role as the IRFU’s head of coach development.

The Australian has been in the job since 2016 and works directly with professional coaches around the country, as well as overseeing the programmes that guide the development of coaches at grassroots levels.

Essentially, his job is to make coaches better at coaching.

Matt Wilkie at an IRFU coaching conference. Source: Irish Rugby TV

While we might instinctively think that involves Wilkie guiding coaches on a tactical and technical learning journey, he is more interested in how coaching is done, rather than the specific content.

“The key thing successful coaches have is probably off the field,” explains Wilkie. “It’s their ability to connect, the relationships they form with their players, and their ability to man-manage.

“I honestly don’t think it’s so much the technical, tactical, strategic – that’s a very small slice of the pie that maybe gives you a competitive edge at the very top level sometimes.

“But those interpersonal skills, communication, the emotional intelligence – those seem to be the key attributes of the successful coach.

“If you look at what drives them, most successful coaches at any level have a continual desire to learn. They never think they know it all.”

Throughout a thought-provoking discussion, Wilkie repeats the mantra that “context is king” and stresses that the attributes required to be a high-performance coach are different from those of a grassroots coach. But he firmly believes the “non-rugby elements” of the art are widely undervalued.

“People don’t know what they don’t know,” says Wilkie in highlighting that coaches can be unaware of how they’re communicating with players, although that doesn’t refer only to poor interaction.

“Even the really good coaches – and there are a lot of good coaches in Ireland – aren’t aware of how good they are in that relationships-connections piece. Working with them to acknowledge and appreciate that is important.”

Wilkie’s hands-on work is with the IRFU’s professional coaching staff – from the senior Ireland teams, through Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connacht, the men’s and women’s 7s teams, the provincial academies, the Celtic Cup staffs, and national age-grade coaches.

Wilkie stresses that working with him is totally optional but the vast majority of coaches on the IRFU’s books have used him as a resource, mainly focusing on things like “leadership, communication, learning outcomes, and educational models.”

Wilkie works with individual coaches on a “bespoke basis” and the process starts with a one-on-one conversation, where the coach delivers self-evaluation to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses.

“Even what they don’t say is really insightful because if a coach isn’t acknowledging certain areas that are important, it means they’re not aware of it and therefore not working on it.”

The scope of Wilkie’s role is large. Source: Irish Rugby TV

Once areas of development have been identified, Wilkie engages in video observation of the coach at team meetings and training sessions, as well as before, during and at half-time of games. Throughout this video observation, the coach wears a microphone to allow Wilkie to capture exactly what they’re saying.

The team meeting observation can be particularly revealing, with Wilkie having one camera on the coach and one directed at the players to note their levels of engagement. After the meeting, Wilkie will often grab a number of players and independently ask them about the three key things they’ve taken away from that meeting.

“Because if that’s not aligning to what the coach has said, then there’s something wrong there. If it is aligning, then we can identify what part of their delivery was effective so that they can keep doing that.”

At training sessions and during games, the coach will also be mic’d up and Wilkie will focus a camera directly on them, later syncing that footage with the video of the session or game itself. At half-time, Wilkie sets up two cameras in the changing room before getting out of the way.

“Coaches are often not conscious of how they behave and react and what they say. Most coaches reflect on training but very few will think about what they did and said during a game.”

After analysing the footage, Wilkie compiles a report and meets the coach, concluding with them putting in place a ‘learning and development plan.’

“For some that might be formal training and education around key aspects of high performance,” explains Wilkie.

“For others, it might be regularly throwing them journal articles, some podcasts, some books. It might be a second round of observation in a month’s time. That’s the bit that gets really individual.”

Wilkie is well qualified as a coaching expert, having started off as a P.E. teacher before joining the Australian Rugby Union in 2005 and spending over nine years there in a number of coach development roles, while also picking up a Master’s of Sports Coaching.

He worked with current IRFU performance director David Nucifora during that time and – following a one-year stint as the Queensland Reds’ team manager and another year heading up sports coaching at a third-level institute in Brisbane – accepted an offer from his ex-colleague to make the “big move” to Ireland with his young family in 2016.

Wilkie says his role with the IRFU is “pretty unique” within governing bodies and unions, and he has been pleased with the level of interest from professional coaches in using him as a resource.

“One thing I have learned is that coaches are looking for support. It’s very often an isolated life they lead because there aren’t too many people they can turn to.”

IRFU performance director David Nucifora worked at the ARU at the same time as Wilkie. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

While much of his time is dedicated to helping the IRFU’s professional coaches to get better, Wilkie’s work overseeing the development of grassroots coaches in the clubs, schools, youths and all underage rugby is just as important.

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“That’s where the majority of our coaches sit, that’s where the majority of our players are,” says Wilkie.

“The impact they have on players and the health of the game far exceeds the impact the professional coaches have. They’re the ones responsible for winning the hearts and minds of players at all ages, then providing an environment where they start to develop.”

While Wilkie understands the temptation for youths and schools coaches to mimic starter plays and tactics they’ve seen Leinster or the All Blacks use, as well as focus purely on results, he stresses that the needs of the developing player have to be prioritised at these levels.

FORMER ENGLAND RUGBY star James Haskell is launching an MMA career, it has been announced.

The ex-Wasps man, who earned 77 caps for his country before announcing his retirement from the sport last May after a brief spell with Northampton Saints, has signed for leading mixed martial arts promotion Bellator MMA.

Haskell will compete in the heavyweight division and is expected to make his debut at a to-be-confirmed date in the first half of next year.

In 17 years as a professional rugby player, Haskell’s career highlights included English Premiership and European Heineken Cup success with Wasps.

His career also encompassed stints with Stade Francais in France, Ricoh Black Rams in Japan and Highlanders in New Zealand.

Making his England debut in 2007, the forward featured in squads for the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups, and was a key player as his country won their first Six Nations Grand Slam for 13 years in 2016, while also helping them defend their title the following year.

TOMMY O’DONNELL is a doubt for Munster’s Champions Cup visit to Glasgow on Saturday evening after suffering an ankle injury during last weekend’s win over Racing 92.

The Tipp man had missed much of Munster’s preparation for the Racing clash with a left ankle injury, but it is a new injury to his right ankle that makes O’Donnell a doubt this week.

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O’Donnell was excellent in the first half against Racing. Source: James Crombie/INPHO

O’Donnell was forced off after 48 minutes of the victory in Racing, replaced by Jack O’Donoghue, having taken a blow to his right ankle after making a clearing kick in the first half.

Munster say O’Donnell will be “reviewed by the medical department as the week continues” but he is now a doubt for the crucial Pool 1 meeting with Glasgow on Saturday.

There are a number of other Munster players carrying bumps and bruises after last weekend’s game at Stade Yves du Manoir, with Donnacha Ryan taking a blow to the ribs and Conor Murray sustaining a knock on the thigh, but none are thought to be serious concerns at this stage.

Promising centre Sam Arnold suffered a knee injury while playing for Munster A in their British and Irish Cup win against Doncaster over the weekend, and was replaced at half-time.

The 20-year-old will undergo a scan this week for further investigation. Arnold missed the start of the season after damaging ligaments in his knee soon after joining from Ulster.

More positively for Munster, second row Jean Kleyn and and loosehead prop Thomas Du Toit will return to full training this week after missing the Racing clash due to illness.

Still on Munster’s official injury list are Mike Sherry [back], Darren Sweetnam [knee], Duncan Casey [knee], Alex Wootton [shoulder], Cathal Sheridan [broken leg], Sean McCarthy [knee] and Mark Chisholm [concussion].

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THERE IS NO more appetising fixture in this European rugby weekend.

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Munster go to Glasgow this afternoon (17.30, Sky Sports) with a three-point buffer to work with, but on their home synthetic turf, the Warriors are a team to be feared. And make no mistake, they have an intense longing for the European knock-out stages themselves.

Gregor Townsend will leave the club at the end of this season to take a promotion into the Scottish head coach role. His time in Glasgow has been a period of complete positive transformation. From the move out of the football ground of Firhill in favour of establishing a true home in Scotstoun, to the implementation of an exciting brand of rugby that helped them raise expectations to threaten and then break the Irish-Welsh dominance of the Pro12 by comprehensively beating Munster in the final.

The one big tick missing from Townsend’s list of goals is a place in Europe’s knock-out rounds.

Munster may be in the Pool 1 driver’s seat, but Glasgow can force their way back to the top of the table today by winning while denying the southern province any bonus points.

As befits Townsend’s overall demeanour, the Warriors were perfectly respectful when they were the unfortunate team left to face a Munster team fuelled by grief and anguish in October.

However, while they took a beating from 14 men with good grace that day, there has been some evidence of a sour taste in the mouth since.

After losing a Pro12 tussle at home to an Ian Keatley drop-goal in December, Fraser Brown previewed his return to Champions Cup action by raising his ‘disappointment’ – as scathing a word as modern professionals will reach for – with an interview where Keith Earls suggested the hooker had ‘milked’ the incident brought a red card for the Moyross man on an emotional day at Thomond Park. A quick investigation prompted Earls to apologise and retract the words. He did. We all moved on.

Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

The Warriors will be utterly fired up to exact some retribution for the hammering in Limerick, though. They have forced their way back into the Pro12 top four while stringing five straight wins together since back-to-back home defeats to Ospreys and Munster, yet Rassie Erasmus’ men have the form book firmly on their side.

December’s defeat away to Leicester ended their brilliant seven-game unbeaten run. Yet the late narrow loss remains Munster’s only defeat in 11 and they are growing in confidence and precision with each passing week.

Win today, put one hand a home quarter-final berth and there’s no telling where that rediscovered belief might take them.

Glasgow Warriors:

15. Stuart Hogg
14. Tommy Seymour
13. Mark Bennett
12. Alex Dunbar
11. Lee Jones
10. Finn Russell
9. Ali Price

1. Gordon Reid
2. Fraser Brown
3. Zander Fagerson
4. Tim Swinson
5. Jonny Gray (captain)
6. Rob Harley
7. Ryan Wilson
8. Josh Strauss

Replacements:

16. Pat MacArthur
17. Alex Allan
18. D’arcy Rae
19. Matt Fagerson
20. Chris Fusaro
21. Grayson Hart
22. Nick Grigg
23. Peter Murchie

Munster:

15. Simon Zebo
14. Andrew Conway
13. Jaco Taute
12. Rory Scannell
11. Keith Earls
10. Tyler Bleyendaal
9. Conor Murray

1. Dave Kilcoyne
2. Niall Scannell
3. John Ryan
4. Jean Kleyn
5. Donnacha Ryan
6. Peter O’Mahony (captain)
7. Jack O’Donoghue
8. CJ Stander

Replacements:

16. Rhys Marshall
17. James Cronin
18. Thomas Du Toit
19. Dave Foley
20. Billy Holland
21. Duncan Williams
22. Ian Keatley
23. Francis Saili

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