MUNSTER ARE resigned to being without both first-choice locks Paul O’Connell and Donnacha Ryan, as well as scrumhalf Conor Murray, for this Saturday’s RaboDirect Pro12 summit meeting with leaders Leinster at Thomond Park.

All three suffered injuries during the Six Nations, but the province’s medical staff, apparently, remain relatively optimistic that all three will be fit in time for the Heineken Cup.

Injuries apart, both Tony McGahan and Joe Schmidt will be keen to play sides akin to their European quarter-finals after what was effectively a nine-week hiatus to their season due to the Six Nations and with both selections thus constituting significant pointers to their Euro line-ups, it is a game players in both camps will be desperate to play in.

This particularly applies to the ex-Seapoint fullback Felix Jones. “That game speaks for itself,” said Jones, and added laughing: “It doesn’t really need to be built up by any of the players really. I’m sure you guys will be able to do that for us. Yeh, it will be a great game.”

Born in Sandycove, Jones was a star turn in both the 2007 Ireland under-20 Grand Slam team and the Churchill Cup triumph in Colorado two years later, on foot of which he joined Munster after two years in the Leinster Academy, having also won an All-Ireland Junior Cup medal with Seapoint.

After an horrific facial injury at the start of the 2009-’10 season, Jones fought his way and finished last season so strongly that he made his Test debut as a replacement in the World Cup warm-up away to Scotland.

Further caps followed in Bordeaux and at home to France, only for him to suffer a knee injury which cost him a probable World Cup place and sidelined him until last February.

Now finally free of injuries and benefiting from a run of games, Jones must be a strong candidate for the three-Test tour to New Zealand in June but for the moment he has plenty of other things on his mind which will also determine whether that is the case or not. Every game is becoming huge.

“We’re coming to the business end of the season now where everything is a final and we’re certainly going to be treating every game as that. Every game is a must-win at this stage and obviously with the Leinster-Munster game you don’t need to use the league positions as motivation. It’s already there.”

But it also means an extra spring in the step at this meaty stage of the season.

“Absolutely. It’s just pressure, pressure rugby, and that’s what you live for, and if you come out on the right side of it in the changing room afterwards it’s a great feeling to be there. Everyone will recover in the next day or two and then everyone will focus on the weekend.”

For Jones, especially, his season is only a couple of months old.

“It’s pretty much of a carbon copy of last year for me really. I’m coming in at the business end and can’t really ease myself into it. I’ve just got to really go for it, so from a personal point of view that’s just the way it has to be done.”