Munster have had long enough to think about their last match in the United Rugby Championship (URC) to know that Friday night in Glasgow could tilt their season the wrong way if they suffer a double Scottish whammy.
Edinburgh scored four first-half tries in Musgrave Park in their round 12 match in February from which there was no recovery in a 28-34 defeat. It is a performance that has lingered with the squad and what Munster interim coach Ian Costello described as “the worst 40 minutes we played by quite a distance”.
Glasgow, currently second in the table, are an even bigger challenge and Munster will go to Scotstoun Stadium without their international players, Jack Crowley, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Tadhg Beirne and Calvin Nash, who are not available until next week when Munster face Connacht at MacHale Park in Castlebar.
“All the players that were named in the original Six Nations squad are rested this week, so they are on mandatory rest regardless of exposure or game time,” said Costello. “That’s related to the intense period they had over the last two months, so for us to come in early next week with a view to being available for selection against Connacht.”
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Costello was positive about the possibility of having Craig Casey and Jack O’Donoghue back for next week’s match. Both players are training but are just shy in their rehabilitation to be available for the trip to Scotland.
But the Irish scrumhalf, who missed the Six Nations following knee surgery when he was forced off in Munster’s Champions Cup defeat by Castres in December, is bringing his typical brio and positive energy to the squad.
South African World Cup winner Jean Kleyn is recovering from thigh surgery, and he also hopes to make a return next week.
“Craig Casey and Jean Kleyn trained pretty much fully today,” said Costello. “They trained as Glasgow, so we got a good test today, especially Craig. He’s bouncing around the place. He’s [done] incredible rehab and so yeah that extra energy and vibe on the pitch today was really noticeable.
“I think with a bit of luck they could have some part to play in the game next week. They definitely won’t this week. Jack O’Donoghue isn’t back into full training yet. He’s doing control pieces but again really encouraging. He’s had a very positive rehab. Looks like he is coming back significantly earlier than expected.
“One of our long-term rehabbers, they said he [Casey] is the guy who is just constantly bringing positive energy to the group, same thing, [he is] very prominent in meetings. Never waned in terms of his contributions and he’s probably stepped it up in the last week, 10 days. He’s such a positive influence on the group, yeah massive addition on the pitch as well.”
That’s all very well but this week Munster have something to prove to themselves. The manner of the performance against Edinburgh was more than disappointing with the Scottish side running in 27 first-half points to Munster’s seven.
To compound matters Munster had no URC match since then with the Edinburgh game played on February 28th, although they did play a recent friendly match against Leicester, fielding 13 academy players. In the interim the squad have done some soul-searching and engaged in honest conversations during the post Edinburgh review process.
“The Edinburgh game, there needs to be a significant reaction to that,” said Costello. “What concerned us was the manner of it the performance around our work rate our energy, things that we measure, we take pride in, it feeds into our physicality ... that was way off.
“Then you throw in our scrum which was struggling ... and we got hammered in the first half. And even though the second half was an awful lot better because we got a footing in the set piece, we weren’t able to pull back that scoreline.
“We hit pause because you have to, when you have a performance like that. If we put two performances like that back-to-back, it’s a concern, but when you have one you hit pause, you look at what’s next. We didn’t hold back, we were really honest. We’d a really honest review. We’re coming out of that and there’s what next. For 10 days, 12 days that’s fuelled everything we’ve done, what’s next.”
That is Glasgow, who will be welcoming the players from their 2015 title-winning squad to Scotstoun to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their trophy success, when they beat Munster 31-13 in the final.
