LAST UPDATE | 31 Aug 2022
HOME IS WHERE the heart is and there’s no doubt that Mike Prendergast is excited about his first season back with Munster.
All the same, France will always be a special place for his family. He left in 2013 to join Grenoble and only returned to Ireland this summer, the lure of Munster proving impossible to resist as he finished up with Racing 92 a year before his contract was due to end.
Prendergast and his family have settled in well over the past few months, although they will always feel a huge fondness for the place that was home for nine years.
“I’m loving being back in Limerick and obviously with Munster,” says Prendergast, who joined on a three-year contract. “It’s exciting.
“The family are happy to be back. But they had a great experience when we were away. Two of my girls were born there and they got to see a lot over the years.
“Some of them are French-speaking now as well so they have had huge life experiences along with myself. You have rugby experiences but you get huge life experiences as well and as a person that can really help you.”
The timing was right to return to Munster, who have embarked on a new chapter with Graham Rowntree as head coach. He was adamant about Prendergast coming in as his attack specialist, with the IRFU and Munster working hard to get him out of the last year of his Racing deal.
Rowntree said last week that he has given Prendergast “free rein” to run the Munster attack and it’s something the Limerick man appreciates.
“Graham is a head coach who trusts his assistants to coach and do their job, which is very pleasing from an assistant coaching point of view,” says Prendergast.
He has a big job on his hands. The southern province’s attack has consistently underwhelmed on the big occasions for some years. They have tended to lay waste to weaker opposition early in their campaigns, look like they’re moving forward, but then shut up shop or show jarring limits in their attack when the real pressure comes on.
Prendergast says he’s not worried about the past when it comes to Munster’s attack. He has been encouraged by what he has seen from the players so far in terms of their skill levels. Nonetheless, some improvements are needed and they won’t happen overnight.
“It’s a cliché but Rome wasn’t built in a day. As coaches, we’ve got to change the habits of certain individuals and that takes time.
“We are training quite quick, intense. I have brought my ideas, Graham has his, Andi Kyriacou [forwards coach] has his, Denis Leamy [defence coach] has his.
“We’ve come together and decided how we want to train – put skills under pressure through difficult situations. We’ve been quietly surprised by how well players can problem-solve with their skills. It will take time but on first viewing, it has been very pleasing.”
How exactly Munster operate in attack remains to be seen. There were some promising glimpses in the second half of last Friday’s pre-season defeat to Gloucester, but the real hints may come from having seen Prendergast’s previous teams in action. He says “one size doesn’t fit all” but there will surely be some overlap.
At Racing, he backed his players to take decision-making responsibility out on the pitch. There was cohesive work in their 1-3-3-1 attacking framework, interplay between forwards and backs, clever attacking kicking, but also good balance in their use of a longer tactical kicking game. There were offloads, sure, but only when they were truly on.
In terms of Munster, Prendergast is keeping his cards close to his chest for now but does say “we’ll probably be a team that will be looking to hold onto the ball, ask questions of the defences.”
He goes on to underline that the players’ decision-making skills are key.
“We are building here in terms of how we want to build our house and how we want to layer our attack, but at the start, we have a framework there – just really getting good at our decision-making and our skill level, which has impressed me.
“The framework is something we try to strip back and make it quite easy for players to make good decisions – good decisions with good skill levels.”
Prendergast’s time in France with Grenoble, Oyonnax, Stade Français, and Racing exposed him to lots of different viewpoints on how the game should be played.
He has built his own philosophy on attacking rugby but the breadth of those experiences has been useful.
“I was in different environments with different players,” he says. “The one thing I always say is that in France there are 10 to 12 different nationalities there, especially in Racing in my last job, and you are dealing with a lot of big rugby brains there.
“As a coach, you always have your own philosophy but if you are willing to listen to the players and their views, you do pick up nuggets through the Australians’ views on the game, the French players, your Scots, or whatever it may be.
“That was a massive learning. I was with four different clubs and each one at the start was a different challenge but it equips you in the long run.”
So he’s bringing lots to the mix now in Munster, who have utterly transformed in terms of their training environment since he last played for the province in 2009.
Back then, the players travelled between Cork and Limerick for training sessions and he recalls them eating their meals in local restaurants near the pitch. Now, Munster have their own world-class high performance centre in the University of Limerick with everything on site for the players.
“This is an unbelievable facility here,” says Prendergast. “We are privileged to have it. It’s run properly and I’m saying that coming from a club like Racing where there were top-end facilities.
“It provides a really good working environment in terms of getting quality work done and the whole layout of the place is really impressive.”
For Munster, the hope is that Prendergast’s return is another important piece of the puzzle falling into place.
