MUNSTER ASSISTANT COACH Denis Leamy has confirmed that the province will not be signing Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx.

The southern province have been repeatedly linked with the World Cup winner in recent months, but Leamy says Munster won’t be bringing in Marx, who currently plays his club rugby in Japan.

“I’d like to work with Malcolm Marx, but there’s nothing in it,” said Leamy this afternoon.

“There’s nothing there for us. No, that’s not something that’s happening, to be as clear about that as I can.

“Look, obviously we look in different areas of the market but that’s not a conversation that’s ongoing.”

It remains to be seen if Munster bring in a new hooker next season, with Niall Scannell having been linked with a move to Johann van Graan’s Bath when his contract expires in the summer.

While Munster are in the midst of a busy period of the season, with Northampton visiting Thomond Park this weekend, there is lots of contract and recruitment work happening in the background as Graham Rowntree looks to put his stamp on the squad.

“With the contract stuff, it’s part of our business but we try to leave that to one side,” said Leamy.

“It’s all about performance and what’s in front of us, which is Northampton this weekend. There’s contract talks ongoing all the time and that’s dealt with by Wig [Rowntree] and he takes care of that an awful lot.

“Thankfully, from my point of view as an assistant coach along with Mike Prendergast and Andi Kyriacou, we don’t really have to focus on that. Wig will give us weekly updates or monthly updates on that sort of stuff. That business goes on but everyone focuses on one goal and that’s performance.”

Munster trained at Thomond Park today as they prepare for Saturday afternoon’s clash with the visiting English side and Leamy said there have been some tough selection calls to settle on.

“There’s some really interesting debates happening in the mornings when we discuss teams,” said the former Ireland international.

“It’s very interesting to see the different coaches with different ideas. Like, I want a chop-tackler, the forwards coaches want a lineout option… everyone’s fighting for their different type of player and it’s really interesting discussions.

“We have a lot of options, a lot of guys playing really well. The back row is very hotly contested, the centres, the back three, and it’s very exciting. We have a really difficult job to pick a team this week.

“We’re trying to put out the best team that represents us for this weekend. Because you pick teams differently depending on the opposition you’re playing. So picking a team for Northampton is a real challenge.”

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