Munster will hope that a closer look at Alby Mathewson’s leg will not bring more bad news.
Munster travel to face Exeter in the Heineken Champions Cup, this weekend, and may be forced to leave the following scrum-halves at home:
- James Hart
- Conor Murray
- Neil Cronin
- Alby Mathewson
Following Munster’s tough 30-22 loss to Leinster, on Saturday, van Graan spoke about ‘a lot of bumps and bruises’ in the away dressing room but mentioned Mathewson [knee, pictured bel;ow] as an injury concern. He said:
“Alby Mathewson, we took off because of an injury. Our medical team are currently looking at him and hopefully, we will know more on Monday.”
That update came just after midday and is concerning:
Tough blow for Munster – Alby Mathewson has to go for scan in his right knee this afternoon and is major doubt for Saturday. Conor Murray remains sidelined.
— Sinéad Kissane (@sineadkissane) October 8, 2018
Johann van Graan’s side will provide a medical update on the New Zealander on Monday afternoon but if there is any chance he can play, or even cover the bench, this weekend it will come as a relief. Mathewson linked up well with Joey Carbery, again, and van Graan praised the former Leinster outhalf’s composure before, and during, the game.
“He’s been the same since the first day that he arrived – calm, collected, good in his decision making – clear and concise in his communication. I thought he played really well and the same every week.”
Positives
Van Graan could not offer any more updates on Murray, who is out for an undefined period of time, and Duncan Williams may be handed the No.9 jersey for European duty. There were some positives for the South African, not least Dan Goggin and Tadhg Beirne who both performed well at the Aviva Stadium.
“Yeah, I thought Dan did really well,” van Graan began.
“I thought he dominated the gain line. I thought his decision making was pretty good. I thought he caused there 10-12 channel quite a bit of a headache. We are going to alternate our centres and alternate our squad but, like I said before, this was a real 23 man effort. Very disappointed to come out losing this game because I saw the effort that the players put in during the week but we got beaten by a better side.”
“We identified certain areas of our game in pre-season that we want to improve and I thought we did that,” the head coach added. “[I was] very proud of our set-piece. I thought our maul went pretty well, I thought we scrummed fantastically well. I thought we kept the ball pretty well.
“We left one or two chances out there but that’s the name of the game. Like I said before, all credit to Pete and the team who gave a really good account of ourselves.”
