Dave Kilcoyne: Going as hard as I can at Keynan Knox in training is the best learning he’ll ever get

Dave Kilcoyne gets organised at Munster training at UL. Kilcoyne’s influence on younger squad members grows every season. Pic: Inpho/Ryan Byrne

Forewarned is forearmed and with the Stormers coming to Thomond Park this Saturday, Dave Kilcoyne now has recent memory of the sort of South African physicality awaiting Munster in the United Rugby Championship.

Last weekend’s 42-17 round one victory over the Sharks will enter into the record books as a six-try rout of the first South African opponents to arrive in Limerick in this inaugural URC. For the players, however, the physical toll of the encounter has left a deep impression.

And not just on the little men like scrum-half and try-scoring man of the match Craig Casey, who admitted after the game on Saturday night: “I’ve never been so sore coming off the field.”

So too for the heavy hitters in this Munster team like Kilcoyne, the Ireland loosehead who had even more reason to feel the physicality of the men from Durban.

“It was my first game,” Kilcoyne said. “Normally you would have two or three pre-season games going into your first run-out of the season.

“I was looking around and I was blowing after 10 minutes. I looked at the other lads and I was chatting to them during the game and at half-time and that was the consensus among everyone, even the lads who had played and won in Exeter.

“You look at the second row (Le Roux) Roets, giant of a man, I think he carried four or five times in that first passage. He probably died a death after it but they were definitely physically there and they have a good tighthead in Thomas (du Toit). He was over here, he’s an excellent scrummager in that South African squad, you see the calibre of other props he’s trying to break in there with. They are huge, physical men.

“We have our own South Africans here and we know what they bring. It definitely was a physical encounter.”

Much of the South African beef in Munster’s squad is well advertised with RG Snyman, Damian de Allende, and new signing Jason Jenkins bringing huge physicality, as well as Irish-capped lock Jean Kleyn. Yet the introduction off the bench last Saturday of young tighthead Keynan Knox, a Munster Academy graduate now in his second season as a senior professional, pointed to another significant contributor and Kilcoyne has high hopes for the 22-year-old who could make his 17th appearance for the province this weekend.

“The sky is the limit for him. When you have a forwards coach like Graham Rowntree you are getting that world-class coaching at such a young age. He has probably been working with Keynan now for two or three years and to have that hands-on as young tighthead, he’s always doing extras with him.

“Keynan is always very diligent in his own training, he’s a freak in the gym which is always good for your tighthead to be that strong. I thought he did very well at the weekend when he came on. But this weekend will be a big step up again, so the sky is the limit for him. He’s a big South African tighthead.”

Now 32 and with 192 Munster caps of his own, Kilcoyne’s influence as a mentor to younger squad members is growing with every season.

“You try and pass it on,” he said. “When I broke in I remember it was Marcus Horan who would have been my cousin; Wian du Preez, then you had Darragh Hurley, Dave Ryan, everyone wants to be playing number one, like.

“You obviously want to help the squad, anything I can do to help Keynan, but the best help you can give him is as many physical scrummaging sessions as we can, which are off the pitch there.

“I remember BJ Botha going at me, we had big battles over the years and I learned more off that than I did from anything. You can tell fellas all you want but until you’re actually thrown into the lion’s den and it’s sink or swim, I remember scrummaging against him a few times and you’re coming home with a battered neck from Cork and you’re questioning yourself.

“But he scrummaged in a particular way and I had to come to terms with that and learn how to cope with it. But that was the best lesson I ever learned and me going as hard as I can at Keynan in training is the best learning he’ll ever get.

“Nothing I’m going to tell him about how good or how easy provincial or international rugby is...it really comes down to going as hard as you can in training at each other and it’s sink or swim, I think.”