In Pics: Munster Train At Thomond Park

See our training galley as Munster trained in Thomond Park yesterday and get the pre-match thoughts of Head Coach Anthony Foley as his men prepare to face Ulster in Round 21 of the Guinness PRO12.

Click here to see our training gallery.

While interprovincial clashes already make for fiercely contested affairs, that fact that both teams are chasing a home semi-final in the league will only serve to heighten the drama and physicality at Kingspan Stadium this weekend. However, with Munster not having won in Belfast since October 2010, Foley knows the scale of the task at hand come Saturday.

“Traditionally it never has been a happy hunting ground for us, it’s always been a tough place to go but this weekend we get a chance to achieve a win which we’ll look at, not in a historical context, but in the context of what is necessary to achieve a home semi-final. There’s four teams all vying for a home semi-final in the coming weeks, there’s a lot of rugby to be played and it will be massively competitive.

“Like the others in the top 4 we want to secure a home semi. At this end of the season you reach certain stages that you want to cross off – first it’s securing your place in Europe next season, then it’s play-off qualification and then we chase the home semi.

“It’s important that we are ruthless and get our jobs done on the field to give ourselves every chance. We want to play in Thomond Park in front of a home crowd but every other team will also want home advantage so it will be a case of dog eat dog over the coming period.

“Ulster are a very good side with quality players across the field. No doubt they’d love to be at home this weekend, travel away the following weekend and then have two home games to finish out their season. However we have to be selfish and upset that and go out and do our job which is to secure a home semi-final.”

Foley was also pleased to see Tyler Bleyendaal come through unscathed from his first 60 minutes of game time for the province. After successfully rehabbing post-surgery for a prolapsed disc, the 24 year old out-half lined out for Munster ‘A’ in last Wednesday’s 41-27 win over the Ulster Ravens.

“Tyler did a great job, he fronted up well especially against the big physical test from the Ravens lads. It’s great to have him added to the number of fit bodies available to us. He’s a quality player. The first time I saw him was for New Zealand U20s v Argentina and he was very impressive in that tournament and would have gotten rave reviews after it. Since then we’ve kept a close eye on him, we thought we had him on loan a couple of years ago but it didn’t materialise – he got injured in the ITM Cup final and didn’t manage to come over. That was disappointing back then but we have him now and he’s fit so it’s important that we build him up properly and do the right things by him.”

Ulster v Munster, Guinness PRO12 Round 21, Saturday May 9th at Kingspan Stadium – KO 2:40pm.

Follow live updates on Twitter – @munsterrugby #UlsVMun

This game will be televised on Sky Sports.