MUNSTER HEAD COACH Graham Rowntree insists he is not concerned with the permutations of sealing a top-two finish after his side hit the URC summit with a gutsy 29-26 bonus-point victory in Edinburgh.
While the defending champions are now guaranteed a home quarter-final, a place in the top two would allow them to retain home advantage into the semi-finals at least.
But while Glasgow and Leinster both have tricky away days at Lions and Ulster respectively on Saturday, Rowntree’s focus is firmly on their final regular-season game against Ulster in a fortnight.
“Honestly, it is not spoken about,” he said after his side’s fifth successive away league win, and eighth in all. “The next game is what is spoken about, analysing our next opposition. Competition is high and we’ll look to win that game against Ulster.
“All the permutations for home quarter-finals and home semi-finals… you’ve got to win what’s in front of you.
“There’s a few places I’d like to go more than others, don’t get me wrong, but we have that real belief because we know we can go to difficult places and win.”
Munster had to overcome the early loss of full-back Mike Haley to a head knock and centre Alex Nankivell to an ankle injury before the hour, with scrum-half Conor Murray coming on at wing only to be shown a yellow card within five minutes for killing the ball.
Edinburgh drew level at 26-26 in Murray’s absence, but Munster regathered themselves to earn victory though Jack Crowley’s penalty.
“It was one of the toughest games we have had,” Rowntree said. “But I’m delighted with that. It was far from perfect but we showed some real guts there, because we were dealing with a lot.
“It was all going against us, particularly the penalty count, but that’s just something you have to manage.
“With a six-two bench there is a bit of jeopardy involved, particularly when you lose a back in the first half. But you’ve still got to be brave with your forward bench, and we got the likes of Tom Ahern and RG Snyman on early and they made a big difference again.”
Haley failed his HIA but with a 12-day stand-down period, could still be fit to face Ulster on 1 June, while Rowntree awaits an assessment on Nankivell.
“He twisted his ankle but he wouldn’t come off. He was still hobbling around making tackles,” said the coach, adding that both flanker Peter O’Mahony and out-half Joey Carbery, along with back-rower John Hodnett, would also be back in contention. “We couldn’t risk them this week.”