ACADEMY SCRUM-HALF PADDY Patterson kept up his superb scoring form for Munster this season when he crossed for the fourth time in the last five games in the 58-3 hammering of Ospreys on Friday night.
The 24-year-old, who joined from the Leinster academy two years ago, hailed the impact of former Munster scrum-half Mike Prendergast, who took over as attack coach last summer after a decade in France.
The willingness by Munster to run the ball at every opportunity showed when six of the seven starting backs managed to score a try against Ospreys, with only winger Liam Coombes – who went off injured after 52 minutes – the only one not to touch down.
“And he probably would have scored had he not gone off injured,” said Patterson. “Yeah, it was nice to see every time I passed it out we were making a linebreak. It was enjoyable.
“We had a tough week training so it was nice to put it into action. We sort of targeted this game for a few weeks because we have been off for a few weeks so it was great to see the hard training pay off.”
Patterson, whose seven starts and five off the bench this season has seen him treble his number of Munster appearances to 18, said that Prendergast has been a big help, especially as he too was a scrum-half.
“He’s on to me every day about moving the ball quickly and working on my pass, staying down on my pass, and kicking as well and decision-making.
He’s so good with everyone, he’s constantly on to lads about improving, little things whether you run square, or communication, or connecting. He has a huge influence on everyone, not just me.”
With Conor Murray and Craig Casey in Irish camp, Patterson has had to make the most of every opportunity he gets but the Dublin native has really pushed on since producing a man of the match display in that memorable win over South Africa XV at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in November.
“Yeah, I got a good bit of confidence from that game but we have had other good performances as well. That night everything sort of fell into place but we have had other good performances as well, tough ones as well.
“Treviso probably didn’t look the best. Attack wise we were struggling, we were under the pump, we had sin-bins but we were able to turn it on. One try we went 19 phases and scored at the end. That shows how comfortable we are with all our training with what Leams (Denis Leamy) and Prendy (Mike Prendergast) are doing. We feel we are fitter than everyone else.
“Obviously the first few weeks were tough but it was still a happy camp because we knew what we were doing was going to pay off but we are not getting ahead of ourselves. We have Scarlets and then Glasgow, two tough games coming up,” added the former Ireland U20s player.
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