The daily bulletin on Munster's quartet of walking wounded didn't change much yesterday, with manager Jerry Holland declining to speculate as to the players' likely availability for tomorrow's Heineken European Cup semi-final in Lille.
Nonetheless, Peter Stringer for one expressed himself confident that he would be passed fit to play "if selected", and though John Kelly, David Wallace and Dominic Crotty remained a good deal more noncommittal about their chances, the expectation is that they will all be named in the starting line-up at tomorrow's joint eve-of-match press conference in the Stadium Lille Metropole.
Munster made a somewhat low-key departure from Shannon airport yesterday and a virtually undetected arrival here. One was tempted to think of it as the calm before the storm, except that a thunderstorm in London and resultant computer breakdown in Heathrow meant a 90-minute delay at Shannon before the charter could leave.
On arrival, the squad took a 10-minute bus journey to a nearby rugby ground, Tourcoing, a change of venue due to the wetness of the scheduled training pitch.
It was no more than a 20minute "loosener" according to Holland, who added that the word on the local grapevine is that Stade could not sell 3,000 of their ticket allocation.
Munster thus look likely to have more than half the support, and though coach Declan Kidney says the onus is on the team to get the supporters behind them, he observed: "I think the crowd have given us a lift to help get us this far in the reception they gave us at the final whistle in Twickenham last year and at the final whistle in Bath this year (also a loss).
"And I believe our supporters are people who support the honest endeavour of the players as much as the result, and you can't get better support than that."
MUNSTER
(Probable)
D Crotty; J Kelly, M Mullins, J Holland, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; P Clohessy, F Sheahan, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), J Langford, D O'Callaghan, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements (from) - J Staunton, J O'Neill, K Keane, T Tierney, M Horan, J Blaney, M O'Driscoll, D O'Cuinneagain, C McMahon.
The Munster sponsors, Bank of Ireland, have set up websites and a fax line for messages of goodwill, and are attempting to set an unprecedented landmark of support for a rugby team which, according to the Guinness Book of Records, would be 20,000plus.
Messages can be sent to www.bankofireland.ie or www.munsterrugby.ie or by fax to 00 353 1 874 7184.
