Wednesday's Ireland squad announcement for the RBS Six Nations Championship will determine whether Peter Stringer’s international career has finally come to an end. Omitted from the World Cup squad and surplus to requirements at Munster, Stringer is on loan with Saracens whom he has helped get within touching distance of the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.
However, he is 34 and his long-time mentor, Declan Kidney, might draw the curtain on Stringer’s career at a time when he is two games short of a 100 appearances for his country.
Conor Murray, Eoin Reddan, Tomás O’Leary and Isaac Boss lead the current scrum-half pecking order and may not leave room for Stringer. On the other hand, maybe Kidney will heed the words of Murray, who agreed last week “Peter is still in unbelievable nick, one of the fittest and strongest here for his body weight”.
French ace Dimitri Yachvili recently said he didn’t “understand why he is no longer in the Irish squad”. If tomorrow’s announcement heralds the end of Stringer’s Ireland career, he will be in good company, joining the recently retired John Hayes. Mick O’Driscoll’s omission from Munster’s side will tell against him while Geordan Murphy, Marcus Horan and Tony Buckley will anxiously await a call from Kidney.
Long-term injury victims Brian O’Driscoll, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Jerry Flannery and Felix Jones will be missing.
Much the same applies to many of the younger brigade. Presumably, current form will be all-important. Ulster are going great at present and Kidney is sure to examine the claims of Darren Cave, Craig Gilroy and Nevin Spence.
The Leinster panel is brimming over with young talent and David Kearney, Eoin O’Malley and Rhys Ruddock have caught the eye. Munster flanker Peter O’Mahony and winger Simon Zebo have put their hands up.
Ulster were certainly the Irish Heineken Cup team of the weekend after demolishing Leicester Tigers at Ravenhill. They face an even bigger test at the Stade Michelin on Saturday against powerful Clermont Auvergne. A losing bonus point would put Ulster into the knockout stages for the second successive year and they deserve to be there.
Leinster and Munster are already through, having dug out invaluable wins. Leinster faced a seriously difficult assignment against Glasgow at Firhill and, while not at their best, demonstrated they have a steely resolve. They will easily dispose of Montpellier at the RDS on Saturday to earn a home quarter-final.
Munster, however, could pay a heavy price for failing to take a bonus point from a very ordinary and unambitious Castres side. Creating chances, which they continue to do at will, is a far cry from actually turning them into points. To see handling errors abound and even a couple of passes being thrown into touch was very hard for the muted Red Army to take.
The Castres try must have been one of the softest Munster ever conceded. Northampton still have an eye on a place in the Amlin Cup and will want to avenge the last-minute defeat when the sides met at Thomond Park in November. Apart from the importance of taking something from the game, Munster also need to convince their supporters they can do better than what has been on display over the past couple of months.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/LCvajYo-Qis/post.aspx
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