Pics & Quotes | Benetton Preparations

It’s well and truly back to competitive action this week with Munster preparing accordingly for the arrival of Benetton Rugby to Irish Independent Park this Friday night at 7.35pm.

Click here to view our latest training shots.

As he embarks on his fourth season in the management ranks, Forwards Coach Jerry Flannery is excited for the season ahead as the side look to build on the huge strides made over the past 12 months.

“Everyone came back in good shape and there is an excellent work ethic in this club.  From my point of view, I started off in Connacht for a couple of seasons but all of my formative experiences have been here in Munster and sometimes you take for granted how hard the players work here.  However, when other coaches come in to see how we do things, the first thing they say is how committed, responsible and self-driven the players are here.

“As a result we’re excited and looking to build on last season.  We’re aware that last season’s game plan was effective for us, but when it came to the semi-finals and finals we came up short.  Felix, in conjunction with George Murray (Performance Analyst), put a lot of work into developing our attacking game.  Getting to see the fruits of that in preseason action was really good.  Every team at this stage of the season makes mistakes, but it’s how quickly you can learn and fix the mistakes on the fly is the key.

Performance Analyst George Murray and Scrum Coach Jerry Flannery.
©INPHO/Bryan Keane

“Last year we had a very strong set piece, solid defence and were very competent aerially.  Against 90% of teams those things were enough to get us over the line, but, as you saw against Saracens, where we couldn’t overpower teams we needed to add a bit of subtlety to our game.

“It’s not about running two or three phases to tee someone up to strike, it’s about developing each player’s skillset.  We now have all of our forwards integrated where we’ve worked on their handling skills and their ability to hold depth.  That means there are many more layers to our attack now.”

Friday Night Lights

With both players and the team looking to lay down marker for the season ahead, start this weekend by cheering on Munster ‘under lights’ at Irish Independent Park.

Munster v Benetton Rugby, Guinness PRO14 Round 1, Friday September 1st, ko 7.35pm.

Tickets – Junior €7, Adult €20, Family €40 – can be purchased online here, or at the ground on the night.