Munster must deliver now when need is greatest 

BIG ADDITION: Munster’s Gavin Coombes will likely feature having been in Ireland camp. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Munster head into the final third of the URC regular season in familiar territory, with their backs to the clifftop and with very little headland left between them and the rocks beneath. 

Not ideal ground to be occupying but it means this Friday night’s visit to defending champions Glasgow Warriors has to be perfectly executed, according to interim head coach Ian Costello.

Six points adrift of the fourth-placed Sharks in the URC standings with six games left before the end of season play-offs, and just five points separating Munster in fifth place and Benetton in 13th, the February 28 home defeat to Edinburgh last time out in Cork has sharpened minds and bodies ahead of the trip to Scotstoun and Costello believes it will need a clean sweep of their remaining fixture if they are to deliver a home quarter-final with a top-four finish.

Lose to second-placed Glasgow and the fight is on just to make the play-offs and ensure Champions Cup rugby next season.

“I think realistically finishing top four we’re going to have to win all our games. There’s a six-point gap between us and fourth and the Sharks run-in isn’t too bad,” Costello told the  Irish Examiner. 

“We play the Bulls (at Thomond Park on April 19) so at least that puts one back in our hands, but I think realistically we've left ourselves very little wiggle room, we'll have to target all our URC games, and then if we don't win six and we don't achieve top four, it's how many do we need to win to make sure we're in the top eight.

“I don't know the answer to that because obviously a lot of teams play each other but it is a realistic factor now. We have to finish in the play-offs to make sure we're in Europe next year… and it will all depend on the toll between now and then, there's a lot of big games and a lot of travel.” 

What should give Munster supporters optimism for the fight ahead is the quality of players set to return to the red jersey in the coming weeks, with Ireland loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman, and possibly tighthead Oli Jager, due back to face Glasgow while Wednesday’s squad update foresaw imminent returns to action for scrum-half Craig Casey, lock Jean Kleyn and back-row stalwart Jack O’Donoghue, each of whom has increased their “training exposures” this week.

Frontline Ireland players, Peter O’Mahony, club captain Tadhg Beirne, Conor Murray, Jack Crowley and Calvin Nash are due to return from their post-Six Nations break to face Connacht in Castlebar in eight days while non-playing international squad members John Hodnett and Gavin Coombes are available immediately.

Costello admitted that while the back-row players benefitted from their time in camp, their potential lack of match sharpness was a concern. 

Flanker Hodnett was released from Ireland camp to face Edinburgh but No.8 Coombes has played just once in the last four weeks, against Scarlets on February 15.

“It's definitely a consideration and it will probably influence how we select our bench as well, but it's not ideal, it definitely isn't.

“We would have liked Gavin to have played against Edinburgh, but at the time Caelan Doris and Jack Conan were carrying knocks, so he stayed with Ireland to train and we have to respect that they've got their own agenda as well.

“But Gavin has trained really hard and has come back looking really sharp to Friday night will probably give us an indication of where he is around that match sharpness, whether lack of games will be a factor or whether the fact that he's been training at a higher level will help match sharpness. Let's see on Friday.

“The same thing's going to happen next week, we'll have a couple of guys coming back that it might take a week or two to get up and running, but their quality enables them to seamlessly slip back into the team because win or lose on Friday night, we still have to go out and win in Castlebar the following Saturday.

“They’re our two URC games, the games beyond that, La Rochelle etc, they’re great and we’ll really look forward to them when we get there, but right now it's about league position. Because there’s no point going after Europe if we don't have ourselves firmly qualified for Europe for next year.”