Munster hit by RG, Fekitoa setbacks

Munster’s hopes of causing an upset against Vodacom United Rugby Championship favourites Leinster in this weekend’s semifinal took a massive knock after they lost Springbok RG Snyman and All Black Malakai Fekitoa to concussion.

Veteran scrumhalf Conor Murray has also been ruled out, as has Calvin Nash while Peter O’Mahony, the inspirational captain, will undergo a scan on his elbow to determine if he will be available for the clash.

The minor injury crisis is a massive setback for coach Graham Rowntree as he hopes to cause a major upset against the team’s old rivals. It will mean his side will need to dig deep against a Leinster side that has often got the rub of the green against them.

Munster paid a heavy price for their bruising win over Glasgow Warriors to book their place in the semifinal, but at least have been given the good news that Tadhg Beirne made it through the return to play from an ankle injury unscathed.

Diarmuid Barron (shoulder) will be reviewed as the week progresses to determine his availability.

Rowntree though, isn’t shirking away from the challenge and knows his team have to do everything to give themselves a chance to stop Leinster’s run to the title.

“It’s always a challenge anyway, isn’t it, you play against them, they’ve got some form,” he said after his side’s win over Glasgow.

"They’ve used a lot of players themselves, we’ll see what the next couple of days bring, see what team we can put out on the park and then we’ll go up there and we’ll go for it.

“Our game is growing, we’re learning our lessons. We’ve not had it easy this season, a rollercoaster I saw it referred to earlier, but we’ve got some form because we’ve worked hard on our game, we’re fit and we’re going to have to be better than we were tonight to beat this team on Saturday.”

Rowntree was delighted with the way they outmuscled the Warriors, who had beaten them solidly in the league phase and told Irish media there was a lot of room for improvement.

"The breakdown; our contact was much better tonight,” he said.

“It’s certainly something we’ve put a massive emphasis on the last few weeks, certainly since these guys beat us at Thomond Park six weeks ago. That contact area, we had to be better and I thought our defence tonight was pretty good overall.

“They kept challenging us, they kept going to the corner early on. It was a big physical statement keeping them out and I was delighted with that. The caveat to that is there’s still a load that we can do better.

“We were quite frustrated at the end of the game in the coaches’ box because there’s so much we could have done better, stuff that we can control ourselves.”