Walsh: ‘We’re Building Nicely’

"It’s about bringing your right game at the right time." With five wins from six, Assistant Coach Brian Walsh is happy with the men in red’s progress in the competitive season to date as Munster look to learn and improve with each performance.

With a return to Champions Cup action just over a week away – against Treviso at Thomond Park – Munster travel to the Scottish capital with no fresh injury concerns after last weekend’s try-fest encounter with Ulster. A number of returning World Cup internationals are in contention for selection on both sides this weekend and Walsh is expecting another tough contest in Murrayfield.

“Edinburgh have had a good start particularly at home. They won’t be happy about their last two losses but I think we’ll see a different side this weekend. They’ll also be back to full strength and will be a difficult side to beat, especially at home.

“We picked up a few knock and bangs against Ulster last weekend but touch wood we are in pretty good shape and I guess that’s one of the big challenges we face over a 16 week block – to keep guys fresh and rotate as much as possible. The flip side of that is as you get nearer to Europe you need to get closer to putting your final side out on the park.”

While preparations this week have been geared solely towards the task at hand in the PRO12, Walsh and his coaching colleagues will hope a number of players lay down a marker before the selection process for Europe begins.

“There are some guys who have just linked up with the squad and we haven’t seen play for us, so this weekend is about the balance of giving guys the game time that they need and having a look at guys that are competing for a starting slot. That all said the most important thing is that we keep focused on this weekend, put in a performance and get a result, and then we can build on that for the following weekend’s European action.

Injured players aside, Munster trained with a full complement of players this week with all Rugby World Cup representatives now back in the provincial fold.

“It brings a bit of freshness, mentally and physically, and it’s not just the internationals, but the likes of Mario Sagario and Sean Doyle coming in bolsters the squad and the pace increases as guys try to impress.

“We’ve improved game to game as the league has gone on and it’s about bringing your right game at the right time. I thought we were very good last weekend and did well also in Scarlets given the conditions and we were unlucky not to get a win out of it – little things let us down. We’re building nicely, we need to take confidence out of the things we’re doing well and keep improving.”

Edinburgh v Munster, Guinness PRO12 Round 7, Saturday November 7th at Murrayfield – KO 5.15pm.

This game will be televised on Sky Sports. For Twitter updates follow @munsterrugby #EdiVMun