Laulala Confident Ahead Of ‘Must-Win’ Cardiff Match

Casey Laulala is midway through his second season with Munster and it’s fair to say that, so far, this season is going much better than last.

Munster travel to face Laulala’s former side Cardiff Blues in the Arms Park on Saturday evening as league leaders with only one defeat.

At this stage last season, Munster had already lost three games in the RaboDirect PRO12 after a difficult start and the ex-All Black is really pleased with his side’s form this time round.

“It’s great, there’s a lot more clarity to what we’re doing and we’re not over thinking things,” he said.

“I think most of the heartaches from last year have really paid off this year in terms of experience and really getting hold of what we’re trying to achieve here.

“Also, we’re one year further down the line in what we’re trying to do,” he added.

Rob Penney's side have fought hard to reach the league summit and Laulala revealed that, although some players are on international duty, the team are determined to hang on to top spot and maintain their good form going into the Perpignan double-header in December.

“The boys want to play well to really establish themselves and the way we’re playing is not new to us so it’s just a matter of turning up mentally and playing well at the weekend.

“We must win the next two games in order to be on top of the Rabo and we’ll be trying to evolve our game again and that can give us a confidence boost heading into the ERC games.”

It’s been 18 months since he made the move to Munster and when the sides met last year, Samoan-born Laulala was the match-winner with a late try. He’s looking forward to returning to the club where he spent three seasons, although he’s less enthusiastic about the Blues’ new artificial surface.

“It will be good going back but it’s different now, most of the boys who were there when I was there have moved on or retired.

“It’s always exciting going back there but it will be strange playing on that new pitch, we trained last week on the 4G pitch in UL, it wasn’t too bad but it will be a good experience.”

Laulala has played a central role in Munster’s strong start to the season featuring in eight of the nine games so far and the 31-year-old is happy with his conditioning.

“It’s great, it’s all about managing the body at the moment and so far there are no injuries so I’m able to play normally.

“Touch wood the body holds up but so far so good and that’s the main thing for us, keeping everybody healthy.”

Munster’s clash with Cardiff Blues kicks off at 6:30pm on Saturday evening and will be televised live on RTE and S4C.