From the outside looking in, Munster don’t appear to be in a great place. Upheaval off the pitch has led to the interim appointments of a head coach and forwards coach, and they’ve just suffered a potentially morale damaging 28-7 loss in front of a capacity Thomond Park crowd in their marquee festive fixture to olde foes Leinster. Yet this is Champions Cup week.
What’s more, typically, Munster will be close to do-or-die mode against three-time champions Saracens at their Limerick citadel next Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm), when only a win will realistically suffice if they are to retain hopes of a home tie in the Round of 16.
Throw in a January cold spell, maybe some mist rolling in over Thomond Park, and a teatime kick-off against English opposition, and it really is a time-honoured if dog-eared script.
Embracing the “big challenge” after a week’s reflection in the aftermath of the Leinster defeat, as attack coach Mike Prendergast puts it: “The best place you can play is Thomond Park on a Saturday afternoon at half five, against a team like Saracens; Munster and Saracens go back a few years. If that can’t whet your appetite, I don’t know what can.”
Indeed.
Prendergast also believes that however it looks from the outside, Munster will benefit from both the week’s rest and the change to a competition which is part of the province’s DNA.
“The change-up in competition is good. We know there is little room for error with this fixture especially. The boys have really come in bouncing on Monday and getting a few players back brings that energy back as well, which will help us,” said Prendergast in light of Diarmuid Barron, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Jack O’Donoghue, and Conor Murray all returning to training this week.
He also confirmed that Peter O’Mahony (calf contusion) was “in the mix” pending a decision about his availability on Thursday. There’s also been confirmation of new two-year contracts being agreed by Tom Ahern and Shay McCarthy, albeit Alex Nankivell (hamstring), Thaakir Abrahams (shoulder), Craig Casey (knee) and Jean Kleyn (thigh) remain among an extensive injury list.
Saracens sit third in the Premiership after recovering from the ignominy of a 68-10 loss in Bath with a 35-26 win over second-placed Bristol last Saturday.
“This game, in reality, is probably going to come down to moments again. It’s two teams that probably wouldn’t be a million miles away from each other,” said Prendergast.
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“It’s about us being rightly on it and being able to take those moments on both sides of the ball, and that was the real focus when we came in on Monday, but the energy has been good. We look inside here and we see what we are doing well.
“I know you alluded to it there, it’s a 28-7 game at home in Thomond Park in front of 27,000 people, absolutely, [but] when we strip it back and we look at the moments that we left behind like we did in Croke Park [also against Leinster], that ironically gives us an excitement as well in terms of what we creates and we presented, we didn’t take.
“It’s like in a game of football, you create, but you don’t finish it off and I suppose that’s what we are really focusing on. But that gets you excited because we are creating, we need to finish.”
Thus was the essence of Prendergast’s message, as Munster were “in the top three or four” for line breaks across the three European competitions but failed to convert seven opportunities from 5m out against Leinster, be it tap penalties or lineouts.
“If you look at a top team like Leinster it’s credit to their defence and the pressure they put you under, but if you look at the opportunities in the first game in Croke Park and the game a week-and-a-half ago, you’re talking about a lot of moments five metres out. That’s the area we need to keep driving.”
In what has been a free-scoring Premiership season, Saracens have been unusually prolific and porous.
“I won’t say it’s like a Super Rugby mentality from a few years back, where it depends on who scores more, but with certain games it has been the outcome and what it does is in terms of your defence it heightens what threats they pose.
“Teams are conceding points as well and for me then as an attack coach in an attacking team, it gets us excited and we look at opportunities where we can go after them as well; Saracens this week or Northampton the following week,” he said, also pointing to Munster’s difficult return to Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday week.
That was, of course, where Munster’s Champions Cup ambitions ended at the Round of 16 stage last season for the second campaign running. And with that aforementioned history in mind, Prendergast accepted successive last 16 exits was simply not good enough.
“Yeah, absolutely it’s not, and we spoke about it on both of those occasions when we exited out of the competition. For what the competition means to this club, to our supporters, to the players and everything, I think what we can do now is focus and concentrate on the game that’s ahead.
“When you talk about Munster and Saracens, historically over the last 20 or whatever number of years, I think it gets your mindset racing straight away in what the challenge is about. And we are massively looking forward to it.”
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