Munster on a mission to revive European Champions Cup hopes

If it's January, Munster must be in do-or-die mode. So it has come to pass that Munster travel to Paris this weekend knowing that nothing less than a win over the French champions Stade Francais will suffice if they are to retain their unlikely hopes of advancing to the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup.

The flip side of this is that a win in the French capital would significantly revive their hopes of qualifying, even only as one of the three best runners-up. Helpfully, last week's win over Ulster arrested a slide of five successive defeats and Foley noticed the players training more "with a smile on their faces" over the course of a two-day camp in Limerick.

Normally moving between Cork and Limerick, they availed of the get-together to augment two days’ on-field work by “heading out for a dinner last night. Being split between Limerick and Cork we don’t often spend this much time together as a group and it’s important to break bread together.”

In addition to the timely win over Ulster, Munster had the additional fillip of seeing Conor Murray, Keith Earls, Andrew Conway all returning to full training during their two-day camp.

Majority

“We’re good,” said Foley. “We have a few bodies back today, we’ve had a two-day camp in Limerick this week and the vast majority of players have trained.

One or two have picked up problems. Donnacha Ryan hasn’t trained for the two days, so there would be a question mark over him,” admitted Foley which, in coach speak, probably means that the lock’s knee injury, while a short-term issue, will rule him out of this game.

“Tommy O’Donnell went home with a bit of a sniffle today, but it’s nothing for us to be worried about, but he trained fully yesterday.

“There is a bit of a head cold going round so we are trying to contain that as much as possible – we don’t need that getting closer to the game.”

Stade Francais themselves have been blowing hot and cold after their surprise Bouclier de Brennus success last June when, after finishing fourth in the regular season table, they backed up a quarter-final win at home to Racing by beating Toulon in the semis and Clermont in the final.

Although standing 11th, they are still eight points clear of the relegation zone and 10 off sixth-placed Brive in the last of the play-off places. Viewed another way, of course, the European Cup is now their likeliest chance of silverware.

Whether they select Sergio Parisse may or may not be an indication of their intentions. Their inspirational Italian captain is fit but there’s been no indication from their camp this week as to whether he will play against Munster or not.

Either way though, French sources indicate Stade will field a fairly locked and loaded side, featuring their hugely destructive, world-class tighthead Rabah Slimani, a key figure in those French Championship knockout wins,

Parisse at eight, the hugely influential Julien Dupuy at scrumhalf and Francois Steyn at outhalf, with Geoffrey Doumayrou, recently called into the French squad by Guy Noves, at inside centre.

One man who would relish coming up against Parisse is Munster's captain, CJ Stander.

Great leader

“You’re going to have to look after him. He’s been a great leader for Italy, he’s been playing unbelievable for Stade and you never know what he’s going to do. He’s always around the ball, always scoring tries and he’s a guy you look at in the videos.”

“When I was younger I probably looked at him playing and it’s good to go up toe to toe with him, to see where you stand, because he’s probably the best player in that jersey in the world.

“It’s good to get that going into the match, he’s unbelievable. You’re never sure if he’s going to pass or kick or something else.”

Buzzing

Now qualified to play for Ireland, Stander was palpably buzzing from being drafted into his first Irish squad get-together at the start of the week.

“It was good to get in there, to see the environment. It’s very goal-driven, very focused, a lot of detail.

“It’s good to get in there and now I know what to expect and what I need to work on to get into the next group hopefully.”

He admitted to being nervous in this more elevated environment. “Yeah, very nervous because I was a new guy. Luckily, everyone dragged me in and told me what to do here and there, the players especially but the coaches also. It’s good to get that first camp out of the way.

“There’s a lot of guys, so it’s nothing special. When they pick another group and if you’re in there – happy days. If you’re not, then you have to work harder.”