Players are up for the challenge, declares skipper CJ Stander

CJ Stander has earned plaudits for his captaincy of Munster in trying times but the last throes of the season are set to bring different issues for his leadership as the race for European qualification goes down to the wire.

Starting with Friday night’s visit of sixth-placed Edinburgh to Musgrave Park, Munster have two games to leapfrog the Scots and secure a top-six finish that will guarantee a Champions Cup place for next season. Scarlets, in fifth, are the final-round visitors to Thomond Park on Saturday, May 7 but after successive defeats to Leinster and Connacht and a slide to seventh place, Friday’s clash in Cork is the first and very significant hurdle to cross. Despite leading sides from his schoolboy days in South Africa, Stander, who has been minding the captaincy in the long-term absence of Peter O’Mahony, is in new territory but remains unfazed.

“I have never played to just secure a position before. It is pressure, but luckily, we know what we need to do. We know where we want to be this year and also next year. When you take things on as a group, you can spread the pressure. The pressure is on the players, we have to go onto the pitch, we are the ones who can change it.