Munster to make late call on Billy Burns injury

Munster will make a late call on the fitness of out-half Billy Burns ahead of this Saturday's meeting with Zebre in Parma (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), but say they have full faith in Tony Butler if he is required to step up.

Burns looked in severe discomfort when he was replaced with a shoulder injury during the second half of Saturday's win against Connacht at Thomond Park, but the Ireland international appeared to be moving freely after the game and didn't have his arm in a sling after the game.

The former Ulster ten has had a scan on the injury which appears to have produced a better-than-expected result, with forwards coach Andi Kyriacou saying they will wait until Thursday to make a call on his availability for the trip to Italy.

If Burns is unavailable, Tony Butler looks likely to step into a starting role in Italy. The 22-year-old replaced Burns after 53 minutes at Thomond Park last weekend, and held his nerve to kick two conversions, the second of which proved to be the winning score.

And although the Ennis man has just stepped up to a senior deal from the academy, Kyriacou has backed him to step up to a starting role if required.

"Loads of confidence [in him]" the Munster assistant said.

"We've got a fully integrated training model here, and that exposes out younger players to the way we're trying to play the game, that high speed and physicality we get in training, so he's well able tin terms of managing the gameplan, and directing things from an attack point of view.

"We're very confident, if there is an issue with Billy [Burns]. We don't know yet, we haven't selected a team yet, we don't do that until Thursday, but if it is the case that it's Tony, then we're fully behind it."

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