Munster stars ready for Ravenhill
The Irish international trio, watched by Ireland head coach Declan Kidney and assistants Les Kiss and Gert Smal during Munster’s training session in Cork yesterday, look set to make their seasonal debuts in this weekend’s RaboDirect Pro12 game as the province aims to make it three wins from three in the new campaign.
Head coach Rob Penney is set to select his matchday squad tomorrow with Test players Simon Zebo, Donnacha Ryan and Peter O’Mahony not set to return until the September 22 home game against Newport Gwent Dragons under the IRFU’s player welfare programme. Otherwise he has no fresh fitness issues arising from last Friday’s 19-6 home win over Benetton Treviso.
“We’ve no injury concerns yet and in terms of availability, Conor Murray, Keith Earls and Ronan O’Gara, those three are the only three (internationals) available to selection for us” Penney said.
After a difficult series of pre-season fixtures, the Penney era has got off to an encouraging start with an opening-day win at Edinburgh followed by last weekend’s victory over Treviso although the new head coach was quick to accept his province is still some way off being the finished article.
“Going through the footage again... not so much issues for us but continuing little areas around our skill execution and our unforced error rate really burned us. The boys are really conscious of that and trying to get it right, because we’re creating opportunities, we just have to finish them more efficiently. Hopefully we can nail that in the next few weeks and get more consistent.”
Ulster are also unbeaten this season having narrowly beaten reigning champions Ospreys 16-13 in Swansea last weekend, when they welcomed back Stephen Ferris, Andrew Trimble and Tom Court. And with Dan Tuohy and Chris Henry also available this week, Penney knows his fellow Kiwi Mark Anscombe, the new Ulster head coach, will prepare a big challenge to greet Munster.
“I think the boys are certainly capable of doing whatever their minds are set to do. They have to be ready for a real physical battle up there, it’s going to be terrific. If they’re in the right frame of mind they’ll be competitive and then we’re in with a shot. So we’ll see what happens.”
The former Canterbury coach’s past encounters with Anscombe, who coached Northland and Auckland in the ITM Cup, which Penney’s side won four seasons in-a-row before Munster came calling, suggest an increase in physicality will be required by his players, although his record of not having lost to one of Anscombe’s sides in five meetings perhaps prompted a diplomacy-induced bout of amnesia.
“I don’t know…“Penney replied when asked about the unbeaten record, “he’s a good man but he comes from Auckland. Canterbury people and Auckland people don’t always align in their thinking so we’ve had some good struggles.
As for Anscombe’s Ulster, Penney can already see his compatriot’s hand in their style of play this season.
“There are certainly bits and pieces I’ve seen that have originated out of Mark’s play-books. It’s good, and it’s good that the Ulster boys are buying into what he’s trying to do.”
Not least at the breakdown, where Anscombe is a noted specialist in his homeland and Ulster certainly got Munster’s number in that department when the provinces met at Thomond Park in last April’s Heineken Cup quarter-final.
“It’s a massive part of the game and Mark is knowledgeable in that area,” Penney said. “It would be horrible to think that it was just that one facet of the game that would determine your outcome.
“Every week you’ve to be good there and I think the boys have been pretty efficient.
” We’ve still got some areas of growth but yeah, Ulster are bloody good there, they’re robust and physical and they did a job on Munster last year. We’ve just got to prepare ourselves for that level of intensity again.”
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