'It is very clear' - Prendergast targets three home URC wins

'ONE GAME AT A TIME': Attack Coach Mike Prendergast. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Munster’s increasing confidence in their wider squad gets a further examination this Friday when Ospreys visit Thomond Park as the push for a BKT URC play-off berth intensifies without the province’s Ireland stars.

Gavin Coombes, Keith Earls and Roman Salanoa have been released from Andy Farrell’s Six Nations squad alongside eight other players sent back to their provinces for the resumption of the league campaign over the championship’s first fallow weekend while Ben Healy has also been made available after three weeks away with Scotland.

Yet with five URC rounds remaining, head coach Graham Rowntree will be without captain Peter O’Mahony, the now-injured Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Dave Kilcoyne and Conor Murray for the first two of them, this Friday night’s clash with the Ospreys and the Musgrave Park appointment with Scarlets a fortnight later on March 3.

Further potential injuries aside, they could be available for the remaining leagues games, at home to Glasgow on March 25, and then the challenging final two away games at the Stormers in Cape Town and Sharks in Durban.

Yet their current absence from the selection pool comes at a moment in the season when Munster’s early-season teething problems could come back to haunt them in their quest for a top-eight finish and attack coach Mike Prendergast admitted the coaching group had no jokers left to play. 

Munster will begin Round 14 in sixth place, six points clear of Edinburgh in ninth and realistically needing maximum points from their final three home games to increase their chances of reaching the URC quarter-finals without the need for positive results in South Africa.

“It is very clear and very straightforward, we have got to win the three games,” Prendergast said. 

“I suppose we have to approach it game by game, a bit of a cliché, but that’s where we are at because we had that challenging part to the season and we have no joker cards left.

“We have to be on top of our game but all we can do is go off our last performance which had many aspects of our game. We were very, very strong, we scored five tries over in Benetton, we scored 40 points (winning 40-30 on January 28), so there is no reason not to be quite confident this weekend but, as we said, we are coming up against a team who are in very good form as well.” 

If there is one position that highlights Munster need for players to step up and be counted it is scrum-half with both Murray and Casey part of the 25-man Ireland squad retained for this week’s mini-camp at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Dublin as preparations begin for the trip to Italy on February 25. 

Prendergast, a former number nine himself, was impressed by the Ireland duo’s performances in the epic victory over France last Saturday with Murray starting in the absence of the injured Jamison Gibson-Park and Casey providing excellent back-up off the bench. 

And while the pair will not be available to face Ospreys, the example they are setting to squad-mates Paddy Patterson and Neil Cronin is reason enough for the attack coach to be encouraged this weekend.

“It’s an opportunity for both of them and we have Ethan Coughlan in that mix as well. We’re fortunate that we have a lot of good scrum-halves that we are producing over the years and that seems to keep going.

“But, yeah, the boys who are here with us at the moment, they take huge courage and confidence from what they have seen from Conor and from Craig.

“One very strong thing coming back in here, it is really notable and it stands out how willing the boys are to help each other as a team, both from position perspective and an individual perspective as well. They all bounce off each other, they all help each other. 

"They all want the jersey, they all want that, there is no doubt in that, they all want the number nine or the replacements’ jersey but, for sure, they are two lads that, you look at Paddy over the last few months, that when he had to step in he has really taken his opportunities. He is a very quick, elusive nine.

“Neilly then, obviously, has that huge amount of experience, again the calmness like Conor would have, and then you have another younger lad coming up, Ethan Coughlan, who has been exposed to the Irish 20s and he has come through that pathway and he’s a guy I would see quite a good future here with as well.” 

As for the returnees - No.8 Coombes, veteran wing Earls, fly-half Healy and tighthead prop Salanoa – Prendergast added: "They definitely come back into selection.

“We would have assessed how the boys trained and they have trained very well. They are obviously coming back full of confidence and very positive, but definitely with a lot of hunger as well. They were boys who were only touching distance away from being on the pitch.

"They will definitely be within around the selection within the (matchday) 23."