MUNSTER’S SEARCH FOR a new head coach is continuing in the background as the province head back into Champions Cup action this weekend.

Attack coach Mike Prendergast has previously confirmed his name is in the ring for the top job but isn’t expecting an update anytime soon.

“Nothing has changed. There’s no timeline on it effectively,” he explains.

“We’ve been cracking on doing our jobs day to day, week to week, month to month, and that’s understandable. It was outlined at the start. There’s no rush with this process and yep, there’s no change in that at the moment.”

Prendergast is now in his third season on the Munster coaching ticket having joined the province as attack coach in the summer of 2022.

He feels the Munster attack has made progress in that time but admits they currently need to find a more clinical edge in the opposition half – something which proved costly in the 27 December URC loss to Leinster. 

“I think probably our growth has been our ability to create and where we need to get better is really finish off those opportunities, especially close to that line, which is something that has probably caught us in the last couple of months.

“As you could see against Leinster, whether it be that tap penalty or line-out or through our pick-and-goes through our forwards or picking the right moment of pulling the ball out for our backs to pull the trigger.

“That’s probably the area we know we still need to work on, but in terms of creativity and linebreaks, I think we’re in the top three or four for linebreaks in the competitions in Europe. So, there’s plenty of good there.

“I remember coming in our first year speaking about our framework and how we’d add to it and tweak as we’d go along, and I think our short kicking game – and you could see it against Leinster a couple of times when we created things but didn’t capitalise on them – is something that’s coming on, or our kicking through our framework.

“So, in terms of how it’s evolved, I think there’s been plenty of aspects that have improved and the big part of it is, I won’t say having that ruthless finish to it, but when they present themselves we’ve got to take those opportunities.”

Tweaks made to the way Munster train are aimed at rectifying some of those issues.

Munster attack coach Mike Prendergast. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“We’re a bit more unstructured in training. At the start it was different, you’re looking at certain aspects. As we’ve been going through the last season or two we’re looking at certain aspects of the game in attack, how we develop it and how we get better.  

Statistically, when we looked it up, especially this season, at the start of the season we were coming up short in terms of the unstructured, counter-attacks, turnovers and scoring from that.

“We’ve flipped that on its head over the last two months or so and we’ve scored a good bit of tries from the unstructured part of the game and making linebreaks, I won’t even say getting into the 22, into the last five, six, seven metres, and it goes back to being able to really get on top of those moments when those opportunities occur because over the last two months we’ve actually come up against a lot of teams with a high line speed down in South Africa, Leinster and it will happen this weekend against Saracens as well

“So it takes a lot to break them down, technically, tactically, everything, and we have been doing that. Now we need to finish it. ”

It has felt as though every week has been a big one for Munster recently but the stakes are certainly raised this weekend as the Champions Cup returns and Saracens come to town, before the province head away to Northampton in round four.

Munster are currently third in their pool (six points), trailing both Saracens (9pts) and the Saints (10pts).

“When you talk about Munster and Saracens, historically over the last 20 or whatever number of years, I think it gets your mindset racing straight away in terms of what the challenge is about, and we are massively looking forward to it,” Prendergast says.

“Hugely looking forward to it, there’s a great excitement, there’s a good buzz around the place. Obviously we were disappointed with the outcome against Leinster.

“We felt there were good parts to our game, just between the two fives was a big part of the game in terms of the last five metres defensively, the last five metres attack-wise and that’s credit to Leinster as well.

“But we did provide ourselves with opportunities from the attack side to get in there and unfortunately we only came up with one score.

Those aspects of our game need to get better. We’ve had a week where we’ve had no game, so we have been able to organise and train around that, and really go after the things that are important.

“This game, in reality, is probably going to come down to moments again. It’s two teams that probably wouldn’t be a million miles away from each other, I don’t think, and I think it’s going to come down to those moments.

“It’s about us being rightly on it and being able to take those moments on both sides of the ball, to be honest with you.

“And that was the real focus when we came in on Monday but the energy has been good. We look inside here and we see what we are doing well.”