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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Michael Scully

Munster give more positive Jack Crowley update after injury scare

Jack Crowley trained today and has not been ruled out of Munster's visit to Edinburgh on Friday night.

New Ireland out-half Crowley suffered a lower leg/calf injury in last weekend's URC victory over Connacht at Thomond Park and had a scan on Monday.

Reds fans feared that he could miss the start of the province's Champions Cup campaign against Toulouse next week, but there was more positive news out of the Munster camp today.

READ MORE: Stuart Lancaster: Ross Byrne has put himself back in the World Cup frame for Ireland

"I couldn't tell you what the results of the scan were, but he's trained today, he's done elements of training today," said forwards coach Andi Kyriacou.

"We're just going to wait and see how he reacts to stuff and move forward as his body tells us."

Asked specifically if Crowley was ruled out of Fruday's fixture, Kyriacou replied: "Not that I'm aware of at the minute."

The Reds feel that they are on a bit of a roll after their defeat of South Africa A in Cork, followed by last week's important URC win against Connacht.

"Not to sound cheesy or anything, but we've been massive performance-driven, in terms of what we're looking for week-in, week-out, and that's something we're still going with," said Kyriacou.

"Week-to-week, what's our performance like, and can we constantly improve?

"We feel we're more comfortable in our shape and the way we're trying to attack and defend.

"Everyone is getting to grips with what us as a coaching group have brought in. We're just concentrating on our week-to-week performances and we're not overly focused on what other teams are doing and where that sits us on the ladder.

"If we perform well, we believe we'll be in a good position in a game to win."

One area where Munster will look to improve is at scrum time, where they had their struggles on Saturday.

"We've gone through our review as we always do," said Kyriacou. "Firstly, we looked ourselves, we haven't looked at anything Connacht were up to, it's how can we get better and control ourselves.

"And we've done some good work in and around that as a front row yesterday, and then collectively today we've built on it again.

We're aware of it, we've got to be better in that area, and we're doing everything we can to put right those areas for the weekend.

"It's something wo do, from a lineout point of view anyway, we're very tempo-driven. We try and stress the lads as much as possible in training by reducing time in between reps, and moving them around the field as much as possible, so they're stressed and able to execute under pressure.

"From a lineout point of view, I think it's a bit of an easier thing to manage."

There has been speculation around the introduction of a shot-clock to reduce the amount of stoppages in rugby but Kyriacou is non-committal about such a change if it was to come.

"From a scrum point of view, it is something that eats a lot of time in the game, but that's way above my pay-grade as to whether that shot-clock comes in," said the former Munster forward.

"We'll see, it'll be interesting, won't it? We'll see what the lads in the office come up with and we'll adjust accordingly."

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