Returning Ireland stars to boost Munster ahead of 'business end of season'

The Reds welcome Cardiff to Limerick on Saturday with their Six Nations contingent back in contention.

Peter O'Mahony and Munster teammates at squad training at UL this week. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

Munster’s returning Ireland heroes will be expected to repeat their high-intensity Test performances when they pull on the red jersey for the first time since their Guinness Six Nations success.

Munster’s bid for the URC play-off places continues this Saturday night with a home game against Cardiff at Thomond Park and the defending champions will be boosted by the return of at least some of the quintet of Ireland stars who played such a prominent part in securing back-to-back championship titles in Dublin a fortnight ago.

Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash and Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony all reported back to Munster’s High Performance Centre on Monday having enjoyed a week off following the title-clinching victory over Scotland on March 16, and while team selection for the Cardiff clash will not be finalised until after training today, forwards coach Andi Kyriacou said this week that whoever was picked in Graham Rowntree’s matchday squad would be required to commit to the same performance levels required of them throughout the Six Nations.

“They’re in good nick,” Kyriacou said. “They’re fortunate enough they get that down week as well, you know, the guys that play a lot of their rugby for Ireland. You see the Premiership, they were back in playing straight away.

“So there is that opportunity for them to recover, to get that respite, see their families and mentally freshen up before coming back in to the business end of the season.

“So, they’ve turned up well on Monday, they’ve trained well… and another training day Thursday. Then it’s into the game and we expect them to play like they were playing for Ireland, that same level of performance they put in, we expect them to do that week in, week out for us.

“They’re training and preparing as if they’re going to play the game. They’re in now. We’ve not picked the team yet, we’ll do that on Thursday but they’ve completed two days of full training now and we’re preparing them to be selected or not be selected.” 

Welcoming a winning group of players back into the squad provides a natural boost for a squad that has won five matches in a row in their absence, against the Crusaders and Harlequins out of competition and bonus-point URC victories at Scarlets, Zebre Parma at home in Cork, and away to Ospreys last Friday night.

Maximum points have allowed the province to climb into the top four of the densely congested standings with six matches of the regular season remaining. Yet with just six points separating Munster in fourth from Connacht in ninth, a place outside the play-off qualification places, the return of the internationals comes at a crucial point of the campaign and Kyriacou has been delighted with the attitude they have brought back to the HPC.

“They’re incredibly upbeat, obviously, as you would be after winning a Six Nations. Some have had a good week off with their families and friends, they’ve rested mentally and come in really positive this week.

“They’re big characters in the building, big leaders. They bring a lot of high performance on the rugby side of things in terms of on the field but then they’re massively supportive to the group as well off the field.

“They’ve jumped right in and haven’t missed a beat this week and they’ve been good to have back in the building.” 

Munster will announce their team on Friday at noon, by which time they will hope former Maori All Black centre Alex Nankivell has completed his return to play protocols following a head injury in training that forced him out of last weekend’s trip to Swansea.