JP FERREIRA HAS said Munster’s initial struggles to adapt to the South African climate was the principle reason behind their slow start to last Saturday’s 29-24 defeat to the Vodacom Bulls in the United Rugby Championship at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.

26-3 adrift at the break, the southern province subsequently rallied on the resumption with tries from Alex Kendellen, Springboks international Damian de Allende and Jack O’Donoghue helping them to eventually secure a losing bonus point. The travelling Munster squad also had a short build-up to the game and, as a result, Ferreira always expected it to be a baptism of fire.

“You can put it down to the heat and the boys finding their feet. We try and simulate the altitude as much as we can and the heat conditions. As you know, we don’t face that week in, week out,” Munster’s defence coach explained.

“It was a short turnaround. Got in on Monday, Tuesday we had a training session. Wednesday we had a session. Thursday off and then Friday we had Captain’s [Run]. Then Saturday the game. We tried to get it as close as we can, but also keeping in mind that we’re keeping the guys fresh for it. I always knew it was going to be tough. They always knew it was going to be tough.

“The biggest thing that we wanted to do is speak about it, talk about it. Get it out there that it is heat, it is altitude. You’ve got to hold on. You’ll find your breath during spells in the game. As soon as it cooled down a bit more in the second half, especially the last 30 minutes, the boys started getting that breath back. It is tough for the boys who haven’t felt it yet. You can only do training and train as much as you can, but there is no such thing as a game situation.”

Johann van Graan’s side won’t have too long dwell on this loss – their fourth of the campaign – as the challenge of Emirates Lions awaits them at Ellis Park in Johannesburg this coming Saturday (kick-off 12pm Irish time/2pm local time). Yet with a game and another week of training under their belts, Ferreira expects Munster to deliver a more consistent display on this occasion.

“The players, they’ve had a week of it now. You could just see at training today again, they are straight in. They are so much better. That’s what a week does in altitude. It doesn’t take too long to get that altitude training, but once you know that you’re used to it, it should be a cracker on Saturday. The boys are used to it now. We can’t wait for the weekend.”

Saturday’s game is set to be an emotional one for Ferreira. After initially joining the Lions as an analyst in 2007, he gradually worked his way up the ladder and was made the side’s permanent defence coach in 2012.

He remained with the club until 2017 – helping them to reach consecutive Super Rugby finals – before eventually linking up with his former University of Pretoria team-mate van Graan at Munster. He has taken note of how the Lions have progressed since his departure and in spite of their difficult form since signing up to the URC (they are currently in 14th place with just three wins from 11 games), he knows not to expect anything easy in the South African capital this weekend.

“Looking at the games that have passed for them, Ivan [van Rooyen] has taken over as head coach and then had an assistant coach reshuffle with the guys coming in there. That obviously takes time to evolve and players getting used to new coaches. You can definitely see the different style of play that they had on the weekend to the one they had previously,” Ferreira added.

“They want to speed up the game, they want to make it quick. They want to use their guys on the edges to get them momentum on the gain line and use their footwork against us. It’s going to be an interesting one. Especially as we’ve had a week at altitude now. I don’t expect us to have a slow start like we had on the weekend.”