Penney relishing Ospreys test

Rob Penney is looking forward to his first big trip to Wales as he leads Munster into a RaboDirect Pro12 battle with the Ospreys at Liberty Stadium on Saturday.

The new coach has had a chance to look at the evidence of last year’s semi-final at the same venue when Munster were whacked by the eventual champions, but he is not in the least bit intimated, citing the huge number of changes in both camps as reason to disconnect from what happened last May.

Instead, he’s looking to build on a decent victory over the Dragons last weekend and believes his side, lying second in the table with three wins and a losing bonus point from four matches, are so far doing enough to keep him happy.

He admits there are areas that need to be improved upon. The scrum is one, in the context of a learning curve all European teams have had to experience in coming to grips with the new contact laws.

Penney observed: “When we get our scrum right, we’re fine, I think there is some technique stuff that teams bring to a game that can be a bit disconcerting; we’re focusing on us and there are parts of our game we need to get better with. Looking through the whole tournament, there are challenges at scrum time.”

Unlike the Ospreys, Munster have hit the ground running — the only loss was by a point, away to Ulster — and Penney has heaped praise on second-row Billy Holland for his role in helping the team move forward so well.

“He is someone who goes under the radar a little bit and yeah, we’re really happy with him, he has got a really good long-term future, he has such a high work rate. He is a smart kid and does everything really nicely and I think there will be some improvement in his game yet.”

Although Holland is a bit shorter than other top class second-rows, Penney figures he makes up for that through his high work rate and street credibility. “With the dynamic nature of young loose forwards coming through, long term Billy is going to be in the middle row,” he said.

Noting that playing the Ospreys on home soil will provide a new challenge to his side, Penney insists a new style of play appears to be suiting Munster.

The results to date have encouraged him: “So far I think we’re happy where we are; if you take the results and you think about where the team is going, in terms of the rugby stuff that is being delivered, I am over the moon. The bonus on the back of that positivity is that we were able to get some results in the early part of the competition, which is all good.”