Munster's new signing Oli Jager is set to arrive at the province this week, and head coach Graham Rowntree hasn't ruled out the possibility of the prop making his debut on Saturday against Leinster.
The 28-year-old's move from the Crusaders to Munster was confirmed last week, with the province having tracked his progress in New Zealand for a number of years. The Kildare man played more than 50 times and won five Super Rugby titles with the Christchurch side since making his debut in 2017.
In their announcement of Jager's signing, Munster said the tighthead prop would to begin his contract at the start of December.
However, Rowntree has since clarified that the new arrival is due to link up with the squad this week, before adding that there's a chance he could be involved in the Aviva Stadium meeting with Leinster.
"We'll see. It depends if he’s been in business class or not," Rowntree smiled, after Saturday's 10-3 win against the Stormers.
"We'll see, but he’ll be on deck in some capacity at the back end of the week.
"I’ve kept an eye on him for a long time. He’s been playing in a very good set-up at the Crusaders, a good man. I think he’ll add to us, I really do."
The province will have Jean Kleyn available to return, with the second row due back in training today, having been given time off following South Africa's World Cup win.
Rowntree (above) will likely have to plan without his captain Peter O'Mahony and vice-captain Jack O'Donougue though. O'Mahony suffered a shoulder injury in Saturday's win at Thomond Park, while O'Donoghue picked up an ankle knock.
Both players are set to have scans to determine the extend of the damage, although Rowntree conceded the pair are likely to be unavailable to face Leinster.
"We'll probably lose Pete and Jack O'Donoghue for a few weeks at least, but we have Ruadhan Quinn, Brian Gleeson, Alex Kendellen there as well coming through so the fact that they've bene training with us and have played for us means they're up to speed.
"Everyone's got injuries. Obviously we had two back-three players retire in the last month, so we bolstered that. I'll see Monday morning. We've got a big squad, and fortunately we've young men training with us every day. We'll look at our back-up," he added.
Munster's win against the Stormers brings them up to sixth place in the BKT United Rugby Champions table, but they're just three points back from leaders Leinster, whom they face on Saturday.
The defending champions needed to grind out their third win of the season on Saturday, Edwin Edogbo (below) scoring the only try of a tense game in Limerick.
The Stormers had come to Limerick without their Springbok World Cup winners but were hugely physical throughout, and although they had to settle for a losing bonus-point, their head coach John Dobson saw progress in their performance.
"To come here a little bit under par and do as well as we did in Thomond Park is nice," he said.
"It's another game building to a very nice rivalry – except we don't win them. I think that’s four we’ve lost. But it’s a game we might have drawn, we were held up twice over the line.
"Munster are so good and so organized we call them the machine. For us, and one of the things Munster were brilliant at in the final last year was the contestables, Conor Murray destroyed us.
"Our contestable game has been really poor for us but we actually won the aerial battle slightly tonight – the scraps and that sort of thing. As it turns out we’re very happy with that."
It wasn't a vintage Munster performance, dictated somewhat by the wind and rain, but the hosts showed impressive resilience in the third quarter when the Stormers were getting on top of the scrum, as Gavin Coombes scrambled back to hold his opposite number Evan Roos up over the lien on two occasions.
"He's important to us, he's very important to us," Rowntree said of Coombes.
"He's covering a couple of positions there. We've got to keep upskilling Gav, keep on top of him, he's a big man, keep him fit. I don't know if I have favourites as players, it's not appropriate, but Gav is very important to us.
"They're a sticky team [the Stormers], an aggressive team, a gnarly team. Evan Roos is everywhere, it's like 15 Evan Rooses on the field. It's Evan Roos coming from every angle around the field. I mean that out of respect.
"We spoke about that target on our backs, and if we keep getting better things will take care of themselves in my mind. Keep bringing people through and getting better."
