Prendergast hopes Munster players can park delight or disappointment of Lions announcement

Tadhg Beirne during the United Rugby Championship match between Cardiff and Munster. Pic: Chris Fairweather/Sportsfile

Whatever fate befalls Ireland’s Lions hopefuls in London on Thursday afternoon, it will be provincial coaches on hand to dish out the congratulations, and pick up the pieces.

With the 2025 touring party and its captain to take on Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies over three Tests on a 10-game British & Irish Lions tour to Australia this summer set to be unveiled at the O2 Arena, having national team coach Andy Farrell in position as the man to decide those fates alongside a phalanx of his IRFU assistants will give Ireland players more confidence than in previous years that recent Champions Cup failures will be forgiven.

The hope will be that when the names are read out by Lions chair Ieuan Evans in London’s docklands, long-standing relationships forged between players and coaches that have delivered so much to the Irish cause in the last three years will count for more than a stuttering 2025 championship and a humbling European semi-final exit for Leinster on home soil to Northampton Saints last Saturday.

Yet there will be disappointments as players watch events unfold by the Thames from their training bases in Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Limerick, where Munster attack coach Mike Prendergast described the likely scenario for his province.

Club captain Tadhg Beirne appears to be the only possible certainty to be on the Lions squad list but Prendergast underlined that the must-win URC derby against Ulster which follows at Thomond Park a little more than 24 hours later must remain the players’ focus.

“Yeah, we mentioned it briefly,” Prendergast said on Monday. “It’s something that today probably wasn’t the day for it, we’ve a bit more going on in terms of the group, in terms of Munster being first, but it’s something we’ll speak about on Wednesday.

“Hopefully there’ll be a few players in it but if there’s not, it’s how we deal with that with certain individuals. They are all individuals that are different. Some maybe want you to make something of it, others just don’t want to make anything of it.

“We’re playing Friday as well so it’s a quick (turnaround).” 

Prendergast said he hoped players would be able to park their news, good or bad, quickly and move on to the task at hand.

“I’m sure when they go home on Thursday evening or whenever there will be one or two lads that if it doesn’t work out their way that naturally they will be disappointed but for the team you’ve got to realise that you’ve got to get back up and get going again.” 

One Munster player, though, will watch on without concern. Peter O’Mahony led the Lions in the opening Test against New Zealand in 2017 and is not expecting a second bite of the cherry as he prepares for his final Munster games before retirement at the end of the season.

“I don't think so, there's too many good players around now at the moment to be thinking that way,” O’Mahony said. “I think it's going to be a savage Lions team announced, and I think it'll be a great tour. They’ve a great staff and I'd imagine the squad that’s going to be picked is going to be very, very special.

“It’s a special time for players, I’m sure guys are nervous, but I'm not too hung up on that now at the moment.”