NIALL SCANNELL HAS lived through his share of ups and downs at Munster but that doesn’t make the bumps in the road any easier to handle.

It’s been another eventful season for the province. Graham Rowntree departed as head coach in October and as the outside world digested that news the players tried to keep things rolling. A November meeting with an All Blacks XV was a welcome distraction as the squad adjusted to the mid-season shake-up. Since then it’s been a little up and down, with Munster beating the Lions, Stade Francais, Ulster and Saracens while suffering frustrating losses to Castres and Leinster. All the while Munster’s search for a new head coach continues.

Scannell, 32, debuted for Munster in 2015 and is set to win cap number 189 today. That experience counts when the going gets tough. The hooker knows that whatever else is going on in the background, in pro sport, all a player can really do is lace up the boots and get stuck in.

“It’s never easy,” says Scannell. “It’s probably different circumstances but it was the same when Rassie (Erasmus) and Jacques (Nienaber) left and then Johann (van Graan) came in.

Scannell has lined out 188 times for his home province. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“The big thing for us was to not have a transition period and then look back at it and say ‘God, we didn’t get the points here or didn’t get the wins in Europe we need.’ So you have to be a bit selfish as a player as well. We have to battle on and to be fair things stabilised pretty quickly, we have a huge depth of knowledge in the building. So while there hasn’t been a head coach appointed per se, it has been pretty seamless which has been good for us.

“Obviously the week after the All Blacks game was pretty helter skelter but since then it has really normalised and I think we’re into a really good swing and our form is picking up. Even the Saracens game at the weekend gave us a big boost in confidence.

“At the end of the day, we all have to move on here as well,” he adds.

It’s pro sport and it can be selfish. You almost have to go against your better human judgement and just remind yourself that this is your job and you have to keep going.

“Nobody will make excuses for us at the end of the season. So you just have to try and flick that switch. In saying that, it is different and people would have had very close relationships with those coaches, myself included. You just have to move on with it really.”

Munster’s head of operations, Ian Costello, has stepped in as interim head coach while other key pieces of the puzzle have shifted around. Denis Leamy continues to oversee the defence with Mike Prendergast running the attack and Mossy Lawler working on skills and assisting the attack. Seán Cronin has been working with the Munster scrum while Tommy O’Donnell is rolling his sleeves up with the forwards.

Alex Codling, forwards coach for the Ireland women’s team, has also been drafted in to fill the space left by Andi Kyriacou. The Munster players have been impressed with Codling’s methods and he’ll continue to work with the province alongside the Ireland women during the Women’s Six Nations.

“If you met him you know why he has made a strong impression,” says Scannell.

“He’s an unbelievably bubbly character, lively and brings energy to a room. But I’ve just been hugely impressed with his bank of knowledge around lineouts. It’s just incredible, and he’s so passionate about it. That man must have logged literally thousands of variations of different lineouts on his computer. It’s crazy.

Alex Codling has been working with the Munster forwards. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“You think at my age, you’ve kind of seen different calling systems and different structures and different ways of exposing things, and it’s just been great to have that refreshing new look at learnings coming in.

“And he’s confident in what he wants done. He has all the detail and the basis for why he wants it done so you just buy in straight away.

“It’s just been hugely energetic. Even at meetings you don’t ever sit down, or he lulls you into thinking you’re sitting down, but after about two minutes you’re up and walking through stuff. So it’s been very different but it’s been very exciting. For someone of my age, it gets a bit invigorating, you know?”

Cronin’s promotion to working with the senior team was a more straightforward move. The former Ireland hooker has been working with the Munster Academy and is a provincial talent coach for the province.

“It’s probably not something he foresaw a few months ago. He’s probably taken to it like a duck to water.

“It’s very handy having someone of his knowledge and experience, but also that he already knew all our terminology and goals and aims, scrumwise. Obviously I know Seán for a long time, I played with him, competed against him, so it’s been good to have him involved for that point of view.”

Munster’s testing season continues with a Champions Cup clash in Northampton today [KO 3.15p, Premier Sports 2], where the visitors will be boosted by the return of Peter O’Mahony. While the province could point to the benefit of beating Saracens without their inspirational flanker last weekend, Scannell acknowledges the 35-year-old’s return improves their chances at Franklin’s Gardens.

I’m not going to sit here and say I didn’t notice that he wasn’t playing, he definitely leaves a bit of a void when he’s not playing, from a vocal perspective as well.

“We have lads who are very capable of executing the job and we were able to put in a big performance without him but there’s just no doubt that he’s going to add to any team in the world that he goes into, so 100% it’s good to have him back.”

Today’s winners will top Pool 3 and bag home advantage in the round of 16. Given where Munster were just a few months ago, the picture could be looking pretty rosy come the end of the weekend.

“It’s exciting,” Scannell adds.

“I find these new permutations in the Champions Cup crazy, I’ll be looking at it (on TV) as well to see how it can go but it’s still great that it’s in our hands and I think that’s where you have to put yourself, especially given that we lost that game to Castres.

“We’re in a good spot now that we have that opportunity because you’re not really guaranteed that if you’ve lost a game already, so we’re hugely excited about that. It’s all in our hands and it’s not a big pressure scenario or relying on things that are outside your control, so we’re hugely excited about that, to go over to Northampton now and have a good crack at what’s obviously going to be a hugely challenging occasion.

“But at least it’s in our hands to go and have a go at them.”