Stephen Moore was not on Munster radar but Robbie Henshaw certainly is

It would appear less is Moore.

Munster head coach Anthony Foley yesterday claimed there "isn't anything" in reports the province tried to sign Australian captain Stephen Moore. The World Cup finalist - who was born in Saudi Arabia to Galway and Mayo parents - was supposedly keen on a move to Limerick before it was blocked by IRFU performance director David Nucifora.

“The Australian hooker, somebody said that to me. There isn’t anything in that. It has happened to us in the past around the media as well, where names are thrown out. "Everything is done behind closed doors. We are not going to talk about it in the public anyway because it is not worth our while.”

Another player Munster have been linked with is Ireland international Robbie Henshaw, who is expected to leave Connacht at the end of the season. While the consensus seems to be that the 21 year old will sign with Leinster, Foley admitted, in public, that Munster "wouldn't be saying no" to signing Henshaw.

“I would imagine there would be a lot of clubs that would love a player of his capabilities in their squad. We wouldn’t be saying no.

"It is probably not appropriate to talk about a player that we are probably going to face at the weekend, in the media on a Tuesday. So I will leave it there.

“The player is an international player, so he has got to make his own decisions. We are probably going to be playing against him at the weekend," added Foley.

Munster will be without Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray for Saturday's top-of-the-table clash at Thomond Park as he recovers from a bruised bone in his foot ahead of the back-to-back Champions Cup games with Leicester.

Connacht have never won a competitive game in Limerick during the professional era but Foley is wary of Pat Lam's side, who are top of the PRO12 table and have won eight of their nine matches in all competitions.

“They were excellent last season, they had a run in Europe as well and we probably got a taste of it in pre-season and they gave us a good trimming in Thomond Park.

"And from there they’ve done really well in the Pro12 and they’ve won their two European games. They’re going really well and fair play to them for the way they’re going about it.”