MUNSTER HEAD COACH Rob Penney says he can’t envisage Paul O’Connell playing rugby for anyone else other than the Reds.

Penney said that contract negotiations with O’Connell are still ongoing and a deadline has not been set for a new deal to be signed.

And Penney also confirmed that his own future with Munster had not been sorted out as he heads into the final quarter of his two-year deal with the province.

However, Penney said he was hopeful that both his own situation and O’Connell’s would be sorted out soon. The Kiwi said it was hard to imagine that O’Connell would go elsewhere and stressed that they are anxious to finalise a new contract for the 34-year old.

“We are desperately keen to make sure he stays here given the guy’s presence and situation and what he has given us all, it would be unheard of that he’d disappear anywhere else,” said Penney.

He said his own position was ongoing but was full of praise for Munster bosses involved in the discussions.

“Things are progressing. The organisation have been great to deal with. I can’t speak highly enough about their administration and the people in behind the scenes and it’s been great and we’re still working through it,” said Penney.

The Munster coach said that Murray and Simon Zebo would return to the fray towards the end of next week and were not yet ruled out of the Heineken Cup tie with Gloucester. Ryan will not make that clash and unlikely to be fit for the final Heineken Cup clash with Edinburgh, but Penney said the lock would be available for the Six Nations.

Flanker Sean Dougall, who was injured in the 22-16 win over Connacht at the weekend, is un available for Friday’s trip to Ravenhill but should be fine for the trip to Gloucester the following week.

Penney said that the shoulder injury to Sean O’Brien was a huge loss to Ireland but, as always happens, this presented opportunities to other players and that Tommy O’Donnell, who himself has just returned from long-term injury, could now come into the reckoning.

“That’s a tragedy for Sean. He’s been in such good form but Ireland are lucky to have somebody like Tommy and Sean Dougall and other lads around the country performing so well, but he’ll be a big loss.”

Of more immediate concern to Penney is Friday night’s trip to play Ulster as they bid to extend their winning run to ten games.

Centre James Downey is out with a groin injury while prop James Cronin, winger Keith Earls, Johne Murphy and development hooker Niall Scannell, who made his first start on Saturday, are all nursing injuries but are expected to be available, while World Cup winning prop BJ Botha has returned to full training from a knee injury.

Penney said that they know they face a big task in Ravenhill on Friday night. They were pipped 20-19 there last year in one of Penney’s early games in charge and he was impressed by what he saw at the east Belfast venue.

“It’s a great atmosphere, probably one of the best in the country. Their home support are very parochial and very loud and 14-15,000 sounds like 25-30,000.

“It’s great credit to them, they’ve got a great little vibe going on up there and that’s probably my most vivid recollection of the game outside of the game, is the support they got from the crowd. You know how passionate they were for their team.

“The game itself, it was a game that we had opportunities to win and didn’t and you can always learn from every experience. So we’ll see if we can go up there and take it a step further in the right direction,” he added.

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