BILLY HOLLAND IS a few months out of the Munster squad since his retirement at the end of last season, but his faith in the men who were his team-mates remains undimmed.
The Cork man – who was been named as this year’s recipient of the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Tom Rooney Award in recognition of his contribution to Irish rugby – firmly believes Munster will beat Wasps on Sunday in the Champions Cup.
The southern province have had to deal with serious disruption in the build-up to this weekend’s European clash, but Holland is backing them to win on the road.
“They’re going to win 100%, I have no doubt about it,” said Holland. “I might not even know some of the names on the bench. I have full faith in them that they are going to turn up and wear their hearts on their sleeves.
“It’s going to be one of Munster’s greatest ever wins. Backs to the wall is an understatement. I have absolutely no doubt they’re going to rock up and they’re going to win.”
While Munster will benefit from the availability of nine international players, as well as potentially being able to name a handful of those who finish self-isolation on Saturday, there will also be some academy players involved this weekend.
For those youngsters, Holland knows the message will be simple.
“Just be yourself, enjoy getting to train with Munster. Don’t try and do anything differently.
“Like Eoin O’Connor [the second row], he’s not trying to be Jean Kleyn or RG Snyman or Fineen Wycherley or Thomas Ahern. He’s just being Eoin O’Connor – go out and do what you do.
“It’s the reason they are there in the academy. For some of these lads, they might never get to experience this again, you really don’t know.
“I think that will be a very simple message that the lads will try to get across. Enjoy it, be yourself and if any of them happen to be in the 23-man squad, you go out and get stuck into a load of English lads over in England.”
While Munster are solely focused on getting the job done in Coventry on Sunday, it remains to be seen what happens with head coach Johann van Graan beyond the end of this season.
The South African’s current deal expires at the end of the season but with attack coach Stephen Larkham having already confirmed his departure, Holland is hoping van Graan will stay.
“It’s a huge blow,” said Holland of Larkham’s impending exit at the end of this season.
“Steve is the best attack coach I have played under, from an individual’s point of view. I was at Munster for 14 years and he is the first person who is really teaching forwards how to run lines, really teaching forwards how to pass the ball, be on the ball, use their skills.
“It’s a real shame that he is leaving. My hope is that they can get someone who is of an equivalent ability to Steve to come in and replace him and keep Johann and the rest of the crew on board.
“It is a shame that Steve is leaving but I do believe Johann is definitely the right man for the job, with someone who is like Steve, who has that real attack, skill development mindset.”
Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him
Top player.
Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.
Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )
Time to sack Ranieri…….
@John S: dilly ding dilly dong
@Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone
Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us
Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!
Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him
Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…
@Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)
@Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.
@Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.
Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.
@Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…
@Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so
@Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)
@len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool
@Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.
That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..
As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.