Sana Govender: 'We need to do the job and execute what we want to'

New Leinster head coach Sana Govender has insisted his squad will not get ahead of themselves in Cork this Saturday.

Leinster may have a burning desire to regain the Vodafone Women’s Interprovincial Championship title they ceded to Munster 12 months ago but new head coach Sana Govender has insisted his squad will not get ahead of themselves in Cork this Saturday.

Munster denied Leinster a third title in a row in 2025 to claim their 16th interpro title since the championship began in 1999, beating them in Dublin in both in the round-robin and the final, a 50-15 hammering at Donnybrook’s Energia Park.

Yet after a campaign which saw the four provinces denied access to their Ireland internationals as they prepared for the last autumn’s World Cup in England, the influx of centrally contracted stars returning to provincial colours adds an intriguing element to Saturday’s opening fixture at Virgin Media Park.

Former Railway Union head coach Govender, whose coaching career began in Skibbereen and progressed through the Munster women’s pathways before a head coaching role in Polish club rugby, knows the round one clash between the tournament’s traditional heavyweights is not a contest to lose focus on. 

Becoming interprovincial champions once more was important but getting a first victory was the main objective and he told the Irish Examiner he would be fielding a “really exciting team” in Cork this Saturday afternoon.

“There's a lot of different things going on in terms of you making sure there's players that are coming through the pathway, players that are playing, but there's also that side of wanting to perform put our best foot forward,” Govender said.

“Everybody wants to win but we said we’d put that win in the future and we need to do the job and execute what we want to, to be able to get that. And it's about the pride in the jersey and every action, every game.

“Our only approach game by game is to make sure that we're coming off that pitch with that pride in knowing that physically we competed, and intensity-wise that we competed, and skill-wise that we competed. Hopefully that gets us over the line but that's kind of the way we're approaching it. But definitely pride in the jersey and that's been a big theme this year.” 

Leinster’s team for the trip south is expected to be named on Friday and the head coach added: “You can expect to see a really good team and we're excited about what we've put together this weekend.

“We’ll be mixing and blending that talent of our centralised players that are Irish internationals as well as some pathway players who've played Under 18s, Under 20s Irish, and also some Club players in there as well.

“Most of them have represented Leinster before and without giving too much away, we are very much excited for weekend number one because we have a really exciting team from forwards to backline and hopefully that shows in the way we play and end up playing on Saturday.”