IAN COSTELLO FEELS Chris Boyd can be an “invaluable” asset for Munster after joining the province as a performance consultant for the coming months.

Costello, Munster’s Head of Operations who is also serving as Interim Head Coach since the departure of Graham Rowntree in October, explained how Boyd’s role will look alongside the ongoing head coach recruitment process.

Boyd was in charge of Super Rugby side the Hurricanes from 2015 until 2018 and was Northampton Saints’ Director of Rugby from 2018 until 2022.

“At the moment he’s over here for the next couple of months through the busy period to the end of January, and then the season obviously gets quite disjointed after that. So that’s the phase that we’ve locked in,” Costello explained.

“Working with the IRFU and looking at what we need in terms of support over a period of time, Chris was identified as somebody that could add that performance support.

“I spent a week with Chris in New Zealand a couple of years ago in the Hurricanes and I would have come across him regularly with Northampton and a couple of my close friends work with them. So in terms of somebody who has, I suppose so much credibility and experience in the coaching and then in particularly now the consultancy space, we felt that would work really well for us while obviously we’re going through the process of looking for a head coach.

His philosophy on how to play the game, his approach to coaching, what he’s done in terms of mentoring people in Northampton and probably aligning a club around a vision, just that level of support, I think would be invaluable for us.”

Munster are in Champions Cup action this weekend with a home game against Stade Francais. The province have all their Ireland internationals back in the building, and are hoping to have all six – Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash and Peter O’Mahony – available for selection.

“Waiting on one (to be passed fit), but without getting into that, they are all available as in there’s nobody being restricted from playing by the IRFU, etc.”

Nick Winkelman, the IRFU’s Head of Athletic Performance & Science, is currently assisting the province’s S&C staff, with Munster’s Head of Athletic Performance, Ged McNamara, absent on personal leave.

And Munster are hoping to welcome key squad members back over the coming weeks. Costello added that lock Jean Kleyn is “not too far away”, while they are taking a cautious approach with Edwin Edogbo, who has been sidelined since last December. Edogbo suffered an Achilles injury last December, having previously injured his other Achilles.

“We were hoping back by the end of the year of the year,” Costello said of Edogbo.

“He’s not had anything specific in terms of setback, but it’s a slow injury. There was no event if you know what I mean? I think the key thing with Edwin is he’s coming back off two Achilles, we have to get it right. He has such a future, if we get it right, and he’s so important to us that I think everybody rightly is saying we’ve got to do this conservatively but do it right.”

Summer signing Diarmuid Kilgallen is also unavailable due to a wrist injury.

“Diarmuid did a scaphoid injury. He fell and he doesn’t know where it happened even. Nobody knows how Diarmuid got injured. He just woke up in the morning and said this feels a bit sore, and a scaphoid injury sometimes can be from a fall, he couldn’t even pinpoint an event. He’s just been really unlucky.

“He’d had a hamstring injury earlier, and we’re always looking at how we keep people healthy and on the pitch and that’s what I’m saying, that Adam Sheehan [S&C coach] and Gordon Brett [Athletic Performance Return to Play] who are co-leading at the moment around their AP [athletic performance] and then Nick Winkelman who is down from the IRFU, they’re doing a great job of managing all that load.”