We’re Prepared Says Costello

We chat with Assistant Coach Ian Costello as Munster prepare for a return to league action minus the services of their national representatives.

Despite losing many frontline players for the duration of Ireland’s November Series, Costello and Munster are delighted to have such good national representation, and have adjusted preparations for the coming weeks accordingly.

“We knew these internationals were on the horizon and we hoped to have as many players as possible called up to the national squad and we’re delighted to have 11 players selected, while Andrew Conway has also gone up to train with Ireland this week.

“If we are performing well and successful on the pitch here in Munster we’ll get a lot of players involved with Ireland and that’s what we want so we’re prepared for that.

“In the last few weeks, the A’s have had three very competitive games in the B&I Cup along with an interprovincial win over Leinster A, and we’ve done an awful lot of work in the background to prepare for this block of games when the internationals are away.

“We make sure that all players involved in the coming weeks are up to speed and all over our systems and structures so they are ready to hit the ground running.

“The beauty of this is that it brings another level of enthusiasm and another level of motivation as some of these guys have been waiting for this opportunity for a month.

“I think we’ll get a nice balance between the experience from the guys that are still here and the little bit of enthusiasm and excitement from the guys that are coming in.”

Despite Clermont Auvergne looming in round 3 of the European Champions Cup in the first week of December, the Assistant Coach insists that for the coming weeks the focus is firmly on a return to league action in the Guinness PRO12.

“From our point of view we want to win the competition and everything we do all season is geared towards that. We’re in a reasonably good position but we want to improve on that this week and in the coming weeks, after which we’ll begin to look at the run in to Europe again.

“This week is all about Cardiff on the road, putting in a good performance, hopefully getting a result over there and establishing ourselves firmly in the top few teams.”

Cardiff Blues v Munster, Guinness PRO12 Round 7, Cardiff Arms Park, Saturday November 1st – KO 5:15pm.

This game will be televised live on Sky Sports 2.