Realist Johann van Graan prepares to ‘start again at zero’

Munster boss Johann van Graan is relying on his players to have moved on from their St Stephen’s Day defeat at home to Leinster when they travel to face Ulster on New Year’s Day.

Van Graan saw his side sink to their first loss under his watch, a 34-24 reverse at Thomond Park, and is looking for a positive reaction at Ravenhill. Win or lose, it is clear the South African sees every game as a clean slate, as shown by his fondness for the phrase “start again at zero”.

So with the demands placed upon him by the IRFU’s player welfare programme meaning he will have to rotate his squad for Monday’s second Guinness PRO14 derby in six days, there is enough disruption to the preparations without dealing with matters within his squad’s control.

“If you make a lot of changes it does affect momentum and Connacht and Ulster have those extra three days now so they will be waiting for us in Belfast,” van Graan said, referring to Ulster’s heavy defeat in Galway last Saturday.

“But it is something we knew beforehand. Winning or losing [against Leinster] shouldn’t influence that so as in any game we will start again at zero and just do our planning accordingly.”

Van Graan insists Munster will not be reading a lot into Ulster’s record 44-16 loss to Connacht, rather their back-to-back Champions Cup victories over English pool rivals Harlequins.

“I don’t think you can go too much on their last performance. I thought to win away at Quins and put in a very good performance at home against Quins they are very well set in Europe and well set in the PRO14, so they are a quality side and I can’t control what Ulster does.

“We’ve just got to reset ourselves and we’re going to go with quite a few changes for the Ulster game, refine our plan, and back on the depth of our squad.”

Van Graan will today name his matchday squad, with Keith Earls expected to make a comeback from the hamstring injury which forced the wing out of Ireland’s November Tests and his province’s European home win over Leicester Tigers. Earls was named on the bench for the return fixture at Welford Road but was an unused replacement and then a late withdrawal from the starting XV to face Leinster due to illness, but returned to training on Wednesday and is available for selection.

Van Graan, though, said he was not going to spend too much time worrying about the other selection issues forcing his hand due to the central management of minutes played for his Ireland stars.

“Obviously it is in accordance with the IRFU player welfare and player management and is very important. The communication channels from Joe [Schmidt] to myself and David [Nucifora] to myself have been very good.

“So certain guys can’t play this weekend because they need some rest and some time away from the game and that’s part and parcel of this game so no, we are not going to put too much thought into that. It’s just the next guy in has got to step up and deliver.”

Meanwhile, Northampton have appointed former Munster coach Alan Gaffney as interim technical coaching consultant, to replace the sacked Jim Mallinder. The 70-year-old Australian has also worked with Ireland — helping win the Six Nations grand slam in 2009 — Leinster and the Waratahs.