Billy Holland maintains focus on Munster mission

Munster forward Billy Holland is refusing to get his hopes up for a World Cup spot later this year, but after a ‘short and sweet’ introduction to the Ireland squad, he admits he’d jump at the chance to represent his country.

Yet to be capped, Holland (29) was called in as cover to Joe Schmidt’s squad during the Six Nations last month. That stint only lasted a couple of days, but after leading the line for Munster as they picked up three wins and a draw without their internationals, Holland has surely moved up the national pecking order.

The Cork-born lock is expected to line out alongside Paul O’Connell in Saturday’s trip to Murrayfield to take on Edinburgh in the Pro12 and he is hoping that a strong finale to their season can reap rewards on the home front – even if that doesn’t result in Ireland caps.

“I would love to think it (the World Cup squad) is a possibility but I haven’t been capped for Ireland.

“If you think like that, it doesn’t ever work out. I have done that in the past where you say you want to play for Ireland, you want to do this and you want to do that and it doesn’t ever happen. You just have got to have more specific real goals.

“I think about getting selected for Munster. I am looking to get selected for this weekend, I am looking to put in a performance and hopefully get a win up in Edinburgh,” said Holland, who has played in 17 of Munster’s 18 Guinness Pro12 games this season.

One of those appearances came against Edinburgh at Thomond Park on the first day of the season. In Anthony Foley’s first match in Limerick in charge of Munster the hosts suffered a 14-13 defeat to the Scots.

He recalled: “Last time out in Thomond Park they blew us away. They were more physical and accurate than us. We felt that we left ourselves down on that day and we’ll be looking to rectify that on Saturday.

“We had a new coaching staff so it was that extra bit disappointing to lose at home in Thomond Park. They were more physical than us, they dominated us in the contact area.

“It was very disappointing when you had a new all Irish coaching staff and we the players let ourselves down that weekend. But we have moved on from that. We will be looking to rectify it this weekend. You don’t talk about revenge or anything like that, that word is bandied about a bit too much, but we are certainly looking to rectify a few things we got wrong in the first game of the season. Having Paulie and Peter O’Mahony back into the back five and other lads generates an extra bit of intensity. You have guys like Donnacha Ryan coming back from injury, so there is serious competition there.

“They are a form side at the moment, they are probably the form side in the Pro12 at the moment, so we are under no illusions as to how difficult it is going to be for us. We’re looking forward to this weekend. It’s a big game for us but it’s equally just as big a game for them. They’ve had some great wins lately - London Irish last weekend and they brought to an end Scarlets’ 15 month unbeaten run at home which was a great achievement.

“Our strength and conditioning staff took advantage of no game last weekend so they trained us hard - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday they got their pound of flesh and a good few of the lads played in an ‘A’ game against Connacht Eagles last Thursday.

“With that hard work put in we’re looking forward to the challenge of this weekend.”