AFTER the excitement of the European Champions and Challege Cup action at the weekend, which resulted in respective Bordeaux/Leinster and Montpellier/Ulster finals, it’s back to the bread-and-butter of the URC next, and for Munster a tricky fixture away to Connacht this Saturday, kick-off 7.45pm.
Almost unnoticed, Munster have crept into fifth place in the League Table standings and with it almost the certainty of a quarter-final tie, and quite possibly a home one at that.
Coach Clayton McMillan has serious injury concerns ahead of the trip to Galway.
Munster are in a strong position as a result of a fine 41-14 win over Ulster at Thomond Park.
“I think (however) we won’t be patting ourselves on the back just yet,” McMillan said the other weekend. “We’re well aware that there are still some huge challenges ahead of us (Connacht, and home to Lions, May 16). But we won’t be the only team in that boat. There’ll be a lot.”
Currently, the order of the top eight is: Stormers (56 points), Glasgow (55), Lions (53), Leinster (53), Munster (51), Cardiff (50), Bulls (49) and Ulster (47), and then Connacht (44).
Meanwhile, the Munster quartet of Josh and Fineen Wycherley, Alex Nankivell and Diarmuid Kilgallen paid a courtesy call to the Limerick Youth Service Centre in Ballynanty at the weekend.
“We had kids from the community, as Limerick Youth Services is one of our partners this year, and we just played a few interactive games with the boys and girls. It was really good craic; the players were so interactive with them, and it was a really good day all round,” explained Limerick City Rugby Development Officer Kenneth McNamara.
“So these areas in general, if we could get more links between the youth centres, youth reach areas, all these things, can really feed into clubs. We have seen it in the past that players from all different areas can end up going professional; they can go on to play with Ireland, and it grows our game totally in a wide range of areas.”