Surgery rules out Edinburgh pair for rest of season

EDINBURGH have lost Roddy Grant and Lewis Niven for the rest of the season after the forwards underwent surgery.

Back-row Grant has had a torn ligament repaired in his wrist and Niven has had an operation to fix a ruptured bicep, which he suffered while representing Edinburgh Accies.

A club statement read: “The pair are now targeting a return in time to begin a full pre-season with the club in the summer.”

Meanwhile, Edinburgh have three front-line players back from injury in today’s RaboDirect Pro12 clash with Munster at Musgrave Park in Cork.

Scotland cap Tom Brown and Wales international John Yapp return along with South African lock Izak van der Westhuizen.

Head coach Michael Bradley said of the match in his home town: “The international window is a challenging time for all of the squads in the RaboDirect Pro12, so we’re delighted to welcome back three quality players for such a big match.

“There’s a good and dangerous balance to our side. There’s a lot of size, power and mobility in our pack and there’s a good bit of pace and guile in the backs.

“The challenge for us is to combine these elements and put in an aggressive and well-managed performance for the full 80 minutes.

“Munster are three from three against us this season so will be full of confidence going into another home game for them. However, we’re very happy with the strength of this squad and will be going all out with a score to settle.”

Bradley also has hooker Steven Lawrie and lock Grant Gilchrist on the bench after they were released from the Scotland squad late in the week.

Only three players who featured for Munster in their last RaboDirect Pro12 game – against Cardiff Blues in early January – are listed in the Munster starting XV for the game.

Nine who started that night are either injured or involved with Ireland, while three more – Mike Sherry, Dave Foley and Tommy O’Donnell – are named on the bench. There’s a first start of the season for Danny Barnes and Ivan Dineen while JJ Hanrahan Johne Murphy and Ian Nagle all get their second start of the year.

CJ Stander returns to the side after breaking a bone in his hand in the game against Glasgow back on 1 December, though he has featured in recent British & Irish Cup games and did come on as a replacement in the January home match against the Blues.

With those three victories over the Scots under their belts this season, coach Rob Penney admitted that complacency was a danger. “It always is,” he said frankly.

“But, as a group, both management and players, we’ve talked about what we want to achieve in this block [of Rabo games]. And being complacent doesn’t fit.

“So hopefully that won’t occur.”

MUNSTER

15 D Hurley

14 J Murphy

13 I Dineen

12 JJ Hanrahan

11 D Barnes

10 I Keatley

9 D Williams

1 M Horan

2 D Varley

3 BJ Botha

4 I Nagle

5 B Holland

6 CJ Stander

7 S Dougall

8 J Coughlan (c)

Subs

16 M Sherry

17 W du Preez

18 J Ryan

19 D Foley

20 T O’Donnell

21 P Butler

22 C Sheridan

23 S Deasy

EDINBURGH

15 G Tonks

14 D Fife

13 B Cairns

12 B Atiga

11 T Brown

10 P Francis

9 R Rees

1 J Yapp

2 A Titterrell

3 W Nel

4 P Parker

5 I vd Westhuizen

6 S Cox (capt)

7 S McInally

8 N Talei

Subs

16 S Lawrie

17 A Jacobsen

18 A Allan

19 G Gilchrist

20 H Watson

21 C Leck

22 G Hunter

23 L Jones