Cool Hurley focusing on Ospreys

MUNSTER’S first RaboDirect Pro12 defeat in Edinburgh on Friday was a reality check for a young squad but Denis Hurley isn’t pushing the panic button.

The Munster back is convinced the next generation will have learned valuable lessons from that loss and continue to shine, while many of the province’s established stars are on Rugby World Cup duty.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s clash against arch-rivals the Ospreys at Thomond Park, Hurley said: “Obviously, this block of games brings opportunity for everyone and it will stand to the younger players to have these matches in the bank. It’s good to see younger guys getting in, and working hard to stay in.”

Eleven players were added to Tony McGahan’s squad from the Academy and Hurley is impressed by the new talent.

“These guys have done their apprenticeships. It’s very important to have a flow of players coming through and it freshens up the whole thing, like it would in any business environment. These lads have shown themselves and how capable they are in training and in ‘A’ games before they came through to full contracts, so it wasn’t as if they appeared from nowhere. They haven’t been offered contracts just because they served three years on development and academy squads. They were offered contracts because they’re good players.

“That the team has been winning matches while international players are away (four wins from five) reflects the quality of player we have within Munster. From last season, for instance, we have seen Conor Murray going through, we have Mike Sherry coming through; these are young players feeding into the system and making their presence felt.”

Hurley hopes to can put a disappointing run of injuries behind him in the weeks ahead.

“It has been up and down these last few seasons but I’m managing my body better now. My hamstrings were a problem for the last few years but the more games I play gives me a chance to have a better run of form.

“I had involvement in three of the pre-season games, 80 minutes in two of them and then three 80 minutes out of four games and I’ve been fairly happy with that run. It gives me an opportunity to prove myself and hopefully it’s that (good) form that’s keeping me in there because there is a lot of competition for places these days.”