Penney Preparing For Gloucester Backlash

Rob Penney’s Munster travel to Kingsholm for a vital Heineken Cup clash on Saturday evening well aware of the threat posed by hosts Gloucester.

A win for Munster would keep them in pole position to qualify for the quarter finals as group winners, but that will be no mean feat against a Gloucester side looking to bounce back after last weekend’s humbling at home against Saracens.

Head Coach Rob Penney said: “They’ll be very motivated to do well, there’s nothing worse in some respects than going to an area with a proud history, like Gloucester have at Kingsholm, after they’ve been wounded badly, as they were last week against Saracens.

“They have been criticised roundly by their supporters, their public and their ex-players which is pretty hard to take.

“They’ll be desperate to do well on Saturday which makes our job that little bit harder.

“It’s a challenging place to go and on the back of what happened last week that makes it even more challenging.”

The forwards provided two tries, and very nearly a third, from rolling mauls against Ulster on Friday but Penney insists that area of the game won’t necessarily be a major part of the Munster gameplan.

“It’s a great area of strength for us, Axel [Anthony Foley] has got that maul aspect of the game working really well and the boys have bought into what he’s trying to do there and we’re getting good outcomes from it,” he said.

“Every team has a vulnerability, Gloucester have some and we’ve got some and whether the maul makes up a big part of our strategy this week we’ll wait and see, but it’s great credit to the lads and Axel that it’s going so well.”

Prop Dave Kilcoyne echoed Penney’s sentiments as Munster look to make it four wins in a row in the competition after the opening day defeat to Edinburgh.

“They’re a side steeped in tradition, they’re a bit like us in that they take huge pride in their forwards and in their set-piece,” said Kilcoyne.

“They got beaten badly last week in front of their home crowd so they’ll be gunning for blood this week and we’ve a mammoth task ahead of us going over there. They don’t want to be beaten twice, especially at home,” the Irish international added.

Gloucester’s inconsistent form in the Premiership sees them lying ninth in the table, 11 points off the play-offs but Munster full-back Felix Jones discounts the notion that league form will have any bearing on Saturday’s encounter.

“It’s very hard to look at a team’s domestic form, that’s the beauty of the competition – it can bring out the best in teams,” he said.

“If you look at Edinburgh two years ago when they got to the semis, they didn’t have a great domestic season so we wouldn’t be reading into anything like that too deeply. We know what they’re capable of and they’re a dangerous side so we’ll be aware of that at the weekend.”

Munster's game against Gloucester kicks off at 6pm on Saturday and will be shown live on Sky Sports.

Following the trip to Kingsholm, Munster will host Edinburgh at Thomond Park on Sunday week in their final pool game of this season's Heineken Cup and tickets are available here (ko 12:45pm).

Munster A are in action at St. Mary's on Friday night with Peter Malone's side hosting Nottingham in a must-win British and Irish Cup clash at 7:30pm. Adult tickets are available here and for more information click here.