Munster coaching ticket striving for continuous improvement ahead of Leinster task 

GEARING UP: Munster players, from left, Ben Healy, Peter O'Mahony and Andrew Conway during a Munster Rugby squad training session at Thomond Park in Limerick. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

There will be a strict no baggage allowance policy in place when Munster depart for Dublin this weekend and with 12 defeats in their last 13 meetings with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium it is little wonder that bad memories are better left at home.

The national stadium could hardly be described as a happy hunting ground, particularly when you factor in European defeats there to both Saracens and Toulouse, and a URC final hammering by Tadhg Beirne’s Scarlets.

Just one win over Leinster, under Anthony Foley’s stewardship in a 34-24 victory on October 4, 2014, since the old Lansdowne Road was redeveloped in the late 2000s is not a healthy return for the southern province, whose only other win there came behind closed doors against Connacht during the Covid era in August 2020.

Munster’s current management ticket, negotiating their first campaign under Graham Rowntree, acknowledges the poor record, but believes it can be a “driving force” rather than a burden. 

With a new coaching group and a fresh approach to both training and gameplan, there is no room for backward-facing negativity, just a respect for what’s gone before.

Significantly, in Munster minds at least that includes the most recent league encounter at Thomond Park on St Stephen’s Day that saw just one point separate the red and blue provinces, Leinster edging it 20-19 in a contest viewed very much as the one that got away.

“I don’t know if it wipes the slate clean but it’s important to know what happened historically,” forwards coach Andi Kyriacou said on Tuesday.

“It can be a driving force for us, but in terms of where we are performance-wise, we played well against them the last day here in Thomond Park, we put together some good things week to week since that November period.

“Look, we’re in a semi-final. It’s a shoot-out on the day and both teams, I’d imagine, will be striving for their best performance possible to get into a final. We’ll just see which way the chips fall come the weekend.” 

Since returning from Durban on April 2 to lick their wounds following a Champions Cup hammering by the Sharks, Munster have managed to plot a path to the URC play-offs and Champions Cup qualification for 2023-24. 

They beat the Stormers in Cape Town to end the champions’ two-year unbeaten home run, then came from 22-3 down back at the Sharks to draw 22-22 and have now reached the last four on the back of a 14-5 victory at Glasgow Warriors last Saturday that brought the Scots a first home defeat in more than a year and exacted revenge for their 38-26 Limerick win five weeks earlier.

Kyriacou understandably asked for more of the same grit applied in South Africa and Scotland to overcome their Dublin woes.

“It’s quite simple really, and I know it sounds cheesy, it’s taking it week to week and take a consistent look at how we can get better from the previous performance.

“We feel that the Glasgow game here (at Thomond Park) was a big catalyst for that, the Sharks game in Europe, was a big catalyst in what we did in the two games in South Africa and the game against Glasgow last week, and it’s just important that we keep improving performance on performance. That’s all we’re striving for.” 

How that is achieved against a Leinster side of all the talents and squad depth as well as the psychological edge their form gives them is the million-dollar question, but Kyriacou insisted it was a simple formula for Munster. 

“The same way we have beaten all the other teams we have played away these past few weeks. It’s physicality, it’s moving fast and concentrating on us.

“If we sit back and let them play, they’re unbelievably good. We have to make sure our minds are on us and our performance, and not what Leinster can bring because like we have seen a number of times, if you sit back and let them play, they don’t need an invitation, they’ll go and do it.” 

The confirmed absence of Malakai Fekitoa, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash and RG Snyman following failed Head Injury Assessments in the Glasgow win, and additional injury doubts over Diarmuid Barron and captain Peter O’Mahony make the task harder, of course.

ON THE WAY BACK: Munster wing Andrew Conway Pic: Morgan Treacy, Inpho

Murray’s injury in addition to fellow scrum-half Paddy Patterson, leaves Munster with two senior number nines available in Craig Casey and Niall Cronin, while Nash’s absence adds another dent in the back three stocks with Andrew Conway, Simon Zebo, and Liam Coombes also ruled out.

Yet the appearance of Keith Earls in training yesterday suggests reports of a season-ending injury from the province last week may have been premature.

Asked about Earls’ situation, Kyriacou replied: “He’s out training today, he’s being assessed, whether he’s in contention or not at this point we have to wait and see how his body reacts to training. But it’s one of those things where medically I don’t know, I can’t say.” 

The Munster forwards coach said Earls, 35, had not taken contact and added: “He’s just been involved in training, getting moving again. We’ll see how he pulls up and the medical assessments on him. But it's day to day, like a lot of these lads at the moment.

“But yeah look, we have got options. We trust lads. We have got Academy lads like Pa Campbell who has played a number of times this season for us. Look, we’re grand, we will be all right.”