Wary Ospreys coach Holley kneels at Munster altar
The Welsh region visits Limerick’s Thomond Park on Sunday in the first of two Pool Three meetings in six days that could make or break both side’s European campaigns this season.
The omens are not good for Ospreys having lost all three previous Heineken Cup ties against Munster, including a 43-9 quarter-final drubbing at Thomond Park in 2009, and their head coach believes it will require a special performance to defeat the current group leaders and two-time champions in front of a sell-out Limerick crowd.
“You can never write Munster off,” Holley said. “They have laid the foundations and, after all the time of trying, there is a legacy there now.
“They have worked hard to get where they are now — just ask our forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys, because when he played Munster at the end of his career, he was playing in front of just a couple of hundred people at Thomond Park.
“Now they have big stands, have won a couple of Heineken Cups, have won the Magners and are currently top of the Magners and our Heineken Cup group.”
Holley, who willwelcome back Lee Byrne for Sunday’s game after the Wales full-back recovered from a thumb injury, said he was surprised Munster had been dismissed as Heineken Cup contenders this time around.
“It is ludicrous that people wrote them off at the start of the season and those comments and thoughts have probably spurred them on.
“We didn’t really need that but we are improving and progressing and it should be a great couple of weeks.
“The Heineken Cup is hugely important for us. But if you want to progress then you have to go to champion places like Munster and do well.
“It’s not on just this game but the double-header will be important.
“We have been knocking on the door for a while but that can be frustrating because you can get impatient. You do need a touch of luck and, while we haven’t had that with the draw, we have to overcome that.”
The Ospreys go into Sunday’s game on the back of a comfortable 33-16 home Magners League win over Edinburgh but Holley admitted his team were still “10%” off the pace.
“Alun Wyn (Jones, Ospreys captain) has also said that in the dressing room after the game,” he said.
“We are nearly there. It’s tough because it’s one week, one game and you are back in Europe. But for all teams challenging at the top of their pool, it’s on a knife-edge.”
The Welsh side know only too well about falling the wrong side of that knife edge having been beaten late on in October when they wasted a great chance of an away win at Toulon.
“Against Toulon we were ahead for 76 minutes and then, bang, it’s taken away from you. I have no doubt that I will have to see the doctor to check my blood pressure,” Holley said.
“It’s going to be tight the next few weeks and if we are good enough we will come through.”
Byrne’s expected return means winger Shane Williams, who dislocated his shoulder in Wales’ defeat to South Africa back in November, is the only big-name absentee for Ospreys this weekend. The former IRB World Player of the Year is expected to be sidelined for two months.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
