‘We know we need to be on it to get a result against Ulster’ – Mike Prendergast’s warning for Munster

Top of the table going into tomorrow’s meeting with Ulster, they can secure a home run through the play-offs with a win of any hue.

That’s thanks to an eight-game winning run in the competition that’s seen them leapfrog Leinster, Glasgow and the Bulls into pole position.

And while there’s always a risk that complacency can set in when you’re on a run like this, assistant coach Mike Prendergast believes they’re well set to avoid getting ahead of themselves.

“There’s always a small bit of a worry there, the only thing is the competition for places reminds me of last year,” he said.

“Just because we did win it last year, it doesn’t mean we’re naturally going to win it this year but you take the learnings from that.

“The one thing I can see outside which gives me great confidence is the hunger, the hunger comes through competitiveness.

“We’ve a few lads back from injury, over the wintery months – especially in Europe – we had to rely on the same players, that was the nature of it.

“But we’ve had a lot of players back over the last month or two and you can see that competitiveness in training, around the building – and that gives me and the coaching staff good security.

“They’re a good bunch of lads, experience and some younger lads.

“You marry that, you know when to go after something if you need to but you don’t want to take it away from them either.”

Munster have used their squad cleverly, while they’ve also demonstrated an impressive capacity to mix things up between and within matches tactically.

“It’s all well and good having a plan, it’s about executing it and the players executed it well – especially in South Africa,” Prendergast said.

“There was a bit of tactics around who we were going to start, we learned from other teams and South Africa left their impact players on the bench and we looked at that in terms of the best person to start and getting players on with 20, 30 minutes to go.

“Marrying it as much as you could, simplifying it for the players and they executed it well.

“The first year I came in, we were implementing a framework and you weren’t going to give two or three game-plans around it.

“You implement a framework in year one and then in season two and three you layer on to that; things like short kicking, bringing more kicking in, and we’re on that journey at the moment.”

Now, they must seal the deal by beating an Ulster side who are almost guaranteed a place in the top seven and Champions Cup rugby next year.

“One hundred per cent, yeah, it’s a huge game,” Prendergast said. “If we don’t perform this week, it would take the gloss off – of course it would.

“They’re a really good side, they’ve won four on the bounce and you’d expect a bounce when a new coach comes in. Richie Murphy’s getting that. We know we need to be on it to get a result.”