Rob Penney will have to plan without players such as Ronan O’Gara, Simon Zebo, Conor Murray, Donnacha Ryan and Peter O’Mahony for the trip to Galway, all of whom are being rested as part of the player welfare programme.

Does this mean Connacht will be without McCarthy?

As Ummm says, it's time for Connacht to step up their performance against an undermanned Munster. This game should more closely resemble the Leinster match rather than the performance put in against a weakened Cardiff side that started this season.

ConnachtCows wrote:

ummm, wrote: Munster have beaten us far too often with a weakened team. That has to stop now.

Yip, I think the most frustrating one was the 12-16 defeat at Christmas 2010.
We dominated them for the last 10 minutes or so, but couldnt get the score we needed.
Was it Darragh Fanning who had a 2 on 1 against Stringer, and managed to get tackled, and ruin the chance

IIRC for Fanning it was the support line run (can't remember who was on his shoulder) which didn't allow him to get the pass away after a great break, overall though I seem to remember he had a pretty decent game...

salmson wrote:

swift4prez wrote: the connacht born munster supporters who come out to there one game a year.

Ah yes, the "Cunsters". I'm sure you have a shorter name for them. :whistle:

thats brillant, first time i heard that term being used. might come in handy saturday.
i can see them now, a munster jersey under there galway GAA jacket

swift4prez wrote: the connacht born munster supporters who come out to there one game a year.

Ah yes, the "Cunsters". I'm sure you have a shorter name for them. :whistle:

only 400 tickets left

have to give it to munster fans, they alway travel to galway in big numbers, and to the connacht born munster supporters who come out to there one game a year.

anyone know will it be the 7,500 or the extras behind the goals to make it 9,000?
if were less then 400, with 72 hours to go, id say it would be worth adding the extra as we'll always get people to wander up.

ummm, wrote: Munster have beaten us far too often with a weakened team. That has to stop now.

Yip, I think the most frustrating one was the 12-16 defeat at Christmas 2010.
We dominated them for the last 10 minutes or so, but couldnt get the score we needed.
Was it Darragh Fanning who had a 2 on 1 against Stringer, and managed to get tackled, and ruin the chance

Munster have beaten us far too often with a weakened team. That has to stop now.

From the Irish Times, kinda devalues it when so many of their front line players aren't allowed play:

O'Callaghan stands alone among Munster's internationals

JOHN FALLON

Wed, Dec 19, 2012

Munster will be without the bulk of their Ireland internationals as they bid to get back on track when they travel to play Connacht at the Sportsground on Saturday.

Donncha O’Callaghan is the only Ireland squad member who will be cleared to play for Munster this weekend, although recent international debutant Dave Kilcoyne will also be available, having missed the game away to Saracens through illness.

Rob Penney will have to plan without players such as Ronan O’Gara, Simon Zebo, Conor Murray, Donnacha Ryan and Peter O’Mahony for the trip to Galway, all of whom are being rested as part of the player welfare programme.

Fullback Felix Jones is doubtful with a thigh injury as Munster bid to bounce back from the disappointment of the loss to Saracens which has left their Heineken Cup quarter-final hopes in serious doubt.

Penney believes that they can still qualify and Munster look set to be boosted by the return of Keith Earls from injury for the remaining pool games away to Edinburgh and at home to Racing Metro.

“He is making good improvement. It was a grade one tear, which is usually two to three weeks. He is three-quarters of the way through that process now so hopefully he’ll be able to do some more high-end activity over the next week or so and see how how bounces back after the Irish camp and when he is available for some footie,” said Penney, who hopes to have him back for the Cardiff game prior to the resumption of the Heineken Cup.

The Munster coach said that it was difficult to work out the permutations which would see them make the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup. The key, though, was to win those two remaining games and hope it was enough to book a place.

“I have seen some history and it says teams have missed out on 22 and teams have gotten in on 19. So you have got to be in that band somewhere, maybe 21 is not enough,” he added.

Foreign players

Meanwhile, Penney has admitted that the new IRFU stipulations which have come into effect regarding the contracting of foreign players, is proving difficult.

But he stressed that he was fully behind the IRFU plan which aims to ensure that only one non-Irish qualified player is allowed to play across the 15 positions for Ulster, Leinster and Munster.

Penney declined to comment on specific cases but said some flexibility may need to be applied. He said that a situation should not be allowed develop where a foreign player departs and is not replaced by an Irish-qualified player of at least similar quality.

“I think there will be some challenges there for sure. It is about getting the balance between doing the right by the team, by having quality players in each position. And also doing the right thing by Irish rugby.

“You have just got to be sure if someone in a specialist position moves on, that the quality of the person that is Irish eligible is able to stand the work load and do the job well enough.

“Otherwise you end up with a player that doesn’t get any benefit from playing a lot of footie back to back repeatedly and getting hammered. And then the ability to grow people on the back of that is really diminished.”

© 2012 The Irish Times

Back to the RaboDirect Pro12 this weekend.
Connacht welcome provincial rivals Munster to the Sportsground in a game which will decide who is 3rd best team in Ireland

24-Mar-2012: Connacht 16-20 Munster
26-Dec-2010: Connacht 12-16 Munster
18-Apr-2010: Connacht 12-18 Munster
28-Dec-2008: Connacht 12-6 Munster
28-Mar-2008: Connacht 5-16 Munster

Connacht Team news:
Griffin and Swift have returned to training for Connacht. Willie Faloon is out

The Connacht Rugby squad was boosted this week with the return of centre Eoin Griffin and lock Michael Swift to full training.

Eoin Griffin has been out of action since the Heineken Cup game against Harlequins in October but the 22-year-old has now fully recovered from his ankle operation and will be available for selection this weekend.

Michael Swift has been absent for the last three weeks due to injury but Head Coach Eric Elwood is confident the 35-year-old lock will be available for the derby clash on Saturday.

With Nathan White and George Naoupu returning to the fold last weekend, the squad has received a timely and encouraging boost.

Eric Elwood said “It’s great to have more and more of the guys back. You want a large squad to choose from, especially for the big games like derby matches.

Meanwhile, there were a few knocks and bruises picked up during Friday night’s 17-0 loss away to Biarritz. Danie Poolman received an accidental knee to the head in the second half but the South African centre recovered well on his return to Galway. He was rested on Monday and returned to training today.

Meanwhile, Willie Faloon has undergone surgery for the fractured eye socket he sustained in the home game against Biarritz. The flanker is expected to be side-lined for up to eight weeks.

Kyle Tonetti returned from a week in Germany where he underwent intensive treatment on his recurring hamstring problem. It is hoped the centre will return to full training early next week ahead of the second instalment of the back-to-back inter-pro fixtures.

Eric Elwood spoke about the upcoming fixture:

“The derby matches are always special. Everyone wants to play in these games and at Christmas time, it’s going to be a full house. It’s never an issue getting up for a game like that, we will relish the challenge.

We’re very much looking forward to it and hopefully we can improve on our intensity levels from last week as we will certainly need it. When you’re playing a powerhouse like Munster you’ve got to match them physically and you’ve got to have that high level of intensity in your game.”