RUGBY:ALTHOUGH A full-on Munster-Leinster match-up inevitably carries the risk of further injuries, as a means of fast-tracking their readiness for a return to Europe after the Six Nations it couldn't be better. Bring it on, was Tony McGahan's view of Saturday's latest Thomond Park instalment yesterday, assuredly speaking for everyone.

With the internationals back, save for injuries, and the first of successive Thomond Park sell-outs guaranteed for a meeting of ferocious local rivals, not to mention a RaboDirect Pro12 top-of-the-table eight-pointer. They will each learn plenty about themselves. As reigning Euro champions, Leinster make an ideal test for McGahan and his team, not least a week before hosting Ulster in their Heineken Cup quarter-final.

McGahan pointed to Leinster’s results, their personnel and the intensity with which they can play in “many different forms”, adding: “I just think they have an excellent mix of all-round performance with regards to squad, they have a strong coaching group and they are certainly producing results on the pitch, which is what you’re looking for.”

Leinster’s first defeat in 20 games last weekend to the Ospreys enabled Munster to trim their lead to eight points, but also kept Ospreys close on their heels.

“We are always looking to chase first place but I think where we’re at we are just really concentrating on ourselves. We’re three points ahead of Ospreys and if we can control what we do we’ll end up in second place. I think first place at this stage is probably gone.’

McGahan was speaking amid the sumptuous and expansive surrounds of the Fota Island Resort, where Munster assembled for a two-day camp, and he remained hopeful Paul O’Connell, Conor Murray and Donnacha Ryan would be fit for the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Ulster.

O’Connell is probably in the toughest race against time: “With Paul’s determination and his heeling powers it would take a very significant injury for him to be kept out of a quarter-final at home next week,” said McGahan.

In the circumstances, the ankle injury Ian Nagle picked up in Galway last Saturday was decidedly ill-timed, and with Dave Foley also sidelined, it means Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll pretty much pick themselves against Leinster, although they also have the versatility of Billy Holland.

Like Peter Stringer, Foley has agreed a new one-year contract, although given Foley could have taken up a two-year option, that seems like a statement of intent.

“Pre-season injuries robbed him of being the next one in line,” admitted McGahan. “I know he is very keen and he and Ian (Nagles) have a tremendous relationship and a real competitive environement that they have created around themselves, very similar to Paul and Donncha to a certain extent. They check out each others weights and times and I think he is putting himself on a timeline, he is really keen to back himself. He is out for the rest of the season and he is another player we have a lot of time for and are really excited about the prosepcts for him.”

Almost invariably, the heated topic of Ireland’s thinnish cupboard of props was given an airing, with McGahan confident that the work being done by Munster and their scrum coach Paul McCarthy will bear fruit with the likes of Alan Cotter, John Ryan and Christy Conlon coming through behind Stephen Archer.

As the position where players develop later than any other, McGahan said: “You look at how all the components come together, with regard to flexibility, nutrition, weight-lifting etc. It certainly is a huge, compact art that you need to deliver on and that takes time.”

Throw in the complexities of the position outside of the set-piece and the required gametime, and McGahan is clearly perplexed at the restrictions to two contracted players per side in the Ulster Bank league, only one of which may be a forward.

‘My personal opinion, which may be different from other people on the (Munster) board, is that that has to change. It doesn’t matter what position you’re playing, players have to be playing, so if the opportunity to play professional rugby doesn’t exist on the weekend and A rugby doesn’t exist they need to continue playing.

“The club game has given certainly Munster everything. The way we have been able to nurture our players. The first group of professional players came through the AIL and then you look at players that have come through recently – the Peter O’Mahonys, the Conor Murrays, the Sherrys, the Archers, you know they’ve built and experienced at an early age the rigours of playing AIL rugby and I think for them to continue we can’t have guys sitting on the sideline and not playing.’