MUNSTER ATTACK COACH Mike Prendergast said the St Stephen’s Day showdown with Leinster at a packed Thomond Park is exactly the sort of game he returned home from France for.
The Limerick native spent almost a decade coaching in France with Grenoble, Oyonnax, Stade Francais and Racing 92, having previously spent a season there playing with Bourgoin, before taking up an offer to return home last summer as part of Graham Rowntree’s coaching team.
And he’s confident that they are going into the fixture with their biggest rivals with a pep in their step after a string of good displays following a shaky start to the season.
“Obviously we have had a decent enough two weeks, good performances, against Toulouse obviously came up short in terms of the results, performance wise I thought we showed a lot of good aspects of our game against a good European Cup side and last weekend was a good victory in different circumstances maybe.
“But we showed grit and a huge desire to keep them out and it was a kind of workmanlike, I suppose, victory. It was a different type of victory but a very good one.
“And then obviously you lead into this, into Leinster this week, a huge game and you test yourself against the best. They have shown that over the past couple few years and even more so this year.
“They have probably added even a small bit more to their game in terms of their attack shape etc and in terms of their maul and it’s something we have to be well prepared for.
“But in terms of the occasion and everything, having crowds back, 26,000 people filling Thomond Park … yeah, we are really looking forward to it and we have spoken about that all week.”
Prendergast said they are confident they are building depth in the squad and selection dilemmas are arising but while lads are pushing through he said the key is not to upset the balance and lose momentum.
“I suppose that’s the beauty at the moment, we are starting to build a bit of depth, guys who have stepped up, who have come through and obviously it is something we speak about on a regular basis.
“In terms of this week we feel there is a bit of momentum going so to finalise the team I’m not sure we are going to come too far away from what you have seen over the last few weeks.
“It’s an important period for us as well, because we have big games coming up, we have two URC after this one and then you are back into Europe. So, managing the squad, the players’ loading is hugely important but we don’t want to take away from a bit of momentum that has come forward as well, so I suppose that is a skill in itself as a staff trying to get that balance right.”
But Prendergast knows better than anyone what a win over Leinster would mean to Munster as they continue playing through a key part of the season with big matches every week.
“It would be huge. We feel like we have moved forward over the last … I think kind of since the Bulls game there has been aspects of our game, parts of our game that have moved on week by week and I think if we were to finish off the year by beating Europe’s top team it would be a massive, massive win for us, for confidence wise and just moving forward. It would be huge,” he added.
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