So Far So Good

It’s a question of so far so good as far as Alan Gaffney is concerned after Saturday’s bruising encounter with Cardiff Blues.

It’s a question of so far so good as far as Alan Gaffney is concerned after Saturday’s bruising encounter with Cardiff Blues.

The one player to leave the field through injury, Shaun Payne received a clean bill of health after being forced to quit the field following a high tackle at the close of the opening half.

It was initially believed that Payne had been concussed but that didn’t prove to be the case and he will be in contention when Gaffney sits down with Brian Hickey to pick the team for the game against Harlequins.

News of Donncha O’Callaghan is encouraging in that the calf tear he sustained in training just over a fortnight ago is responding well to treatment and the Munster coach refuses to rule him out of the equation just yet.

Difficulty of course is that the youngster has not played a competitive game since last season. he played just a bit part in the summer tour of South Africa and thanks to the Eddie O’Sullivan imposed 10 week pre-season training for internationals O’Callaghan is desperately short of match practice as Munster head into their Heineken Cup campaign.

On the plus side the form of Trevor Hogan is hugely encouraging with him producing another top notch performance on Saturday alongside Paul O’Connell.

Rob Henderson is another player who produced a solid performance after returning from an injury that ruled him out of the win over Glasgow and John Kelly surely had to have pushed Christian Cullen close for the man of the match award on saturday after a near flawless performance.