Rob Penney has concerns over Munster’s lead up to Aviva clash

Rob Penney yesterday maintained his description of Leinster as Six Nations champions was meant as a mark of respect to a province who were Ireland's bulk suppliers. It came amid a warning that his players cannot be too distracted by a desire to prove individual points ahead of the collective.

Acknowledging that victory over the league leaders and defending champions at the Aviva on Saturday would probably require Munster's best performance of the season, the Munster coach added: "One of the things that's gnawing away at the back of my mind is that we're coming off a three-week block of no rugby.

'Test- hardened'
"A lot of our guys outside of the three international lads (Paul O'Connell, Peter O'Mahony and Conor Murray) have not played. A lot of their guys are Test-hardened and that is something that's gnawing away. You just can't beat that ability to be match-hardened and they're match-hardened at the highest level. So for us there's potentially some vulnerability there."

On the back of Munster’s sluggish 14-3 win over Treviso this, perhaps, comes with a fear that Leinster could be quicker out of the blocks. “It mainly comes through intensity,” he explained. “Just the speed of the actions, the quickness of the game. If you haven’t been used to that, most players will adapt and get used to that but it might take time. No disrespect to Treviso but we’ve come off a break and then we’re playing a team like Treviso. If they (Leinster) are able to lift it to Test-match intensity right from the word ‘go’ that is a real worry. It’s not a worry in terms of the calibre of people we’ve got, just in terms of the process that we’ve gone to get to that game.”

Viewed in that light, Munster probably need this Saturday’s game as a lead-in to their Heineken Cup quarter-final against Toulouse more than Leinster do before they travel to Toulon for their tie on Sunday week. Furthermore, Saturday week’s result is more important for both teams, but that was not a notion worth countenancing this week.

“Look, I’d love to win everything every week,” said Penney. “Our management group would love to win every week. Our players hate losing, they want to win every week and let there be no doubt about the effort we’ll be putting in.”

Penney confirmed Donnacha Ryan was definitely out due to the foot injury he sustained against Treviso last Saturday, which sounds serious enough to rule him out of the Toulouse game, as is concussed prop John Ryan.

"If our lads want to earn the same rights and the respect that the Leinster boys have they have got to start to achieve some things in the top end competitions," said the Munster coach, who expressed the view that Leinster have added a little more width to their game under Matt O'Connor, and are now more settled under the ex-Leicester coach than they were when the sides met in October.

End of tenure
Facing into the end of a two-year tenure that Penney, victory over Leinster increases the possibility of Munster facing the defending champions again in the knock-out stages of the Pro12, rather than this being a last meeting under his watch.

“Wouldn’t that be fantastic?” he beamed of a fixture he puts on a par with any derby in the world. Hence, he would not be remotely inclined to hold anything back.

“You can’t out-fox the foxes you know. You’ve just got to put your best hand forward whenever and I’d rate us as a very good side and we’re playing a great side really. And when a good side plays a great side, neither side will be fudging too much. You can’t hold anything back. It just doesn’t work.”