Casey: PRO12 Will Go Down To The Wire
14th April 2015 By Munster Rugby
Duncan Casey reflects on the province’s weekend win over Edinburgh in which he scored the opening try. He also acknowledges Munster’s need to maintain current form if they are to succeed in the hugely competitive race for a top-four finish.
Not only was he the first of five players to touch down for Anthony Foley’s men in the 3-34 win, as hooker, the 24 year old played a pivotal role in Munster’s line-out maul which contributed to three of the visitor’s tries at Murrayfield.
“Overall we were pretty pleased with our performance. The scrum came under a bit of pressure at times, against a very powerful and experienced front row, in particular Ross Ford. I’ve played against him a few times and he’s probably the best scrummaging hooker that I’ve come up against. That was a good test for me personally.
“However we were delighted that the maul was so effective against Edinburgh and we’ll take confidence from that as we look forward to the remaining three games.”
Conceding just three points also represented Munster’s best defensive return of the league this season.
“Again we’re quite pleased with that. Luckily or unluckily we haven’t had European games to worry about over the past month so it’s given us extra time to prepare for these games with a big focus on defence. The likes of Tim Visser on the wing and David Denton in the pack for Edinburgh could have done serious damage to us so we knew we needed to be on our game defensively. Thankfully all the work in training paid off and we were able to keep Edinburgh out. To be able to do that away from home was also particularly pleasing. We now need to keep that defence solid for the remainder of the PRO12.”
The remainder of the regular PRO12 season sees Munster host Benetton Treviso at Irish Independent Park (April 25th), then travel to Kingspan Stadium to face Ulster (May 9th,) before returning to Cork to face Newport-Gwent Dragons (May 16th).
“We were able to get maximum points out of the trip to Edinburgh but everyone else around us did the same (Glasgow Warriors, Ulster and Ospreys). That shows just how competitive the run-in of the league is going to be with all of us targeting a play-off position. From there, who knows what could happen, but we need to put ourselves in that position first.
“No one can afford to slip up and this will go down to the wire.”
Munster v Benetton Treviso, Guinness PRO12 Round 20, Saturday April 25th at Irish Independent Park – KO 3.05pm.
Tickets from €;15 can be purchased online by clicking here, from the Munster Rugby Ticket Offices at Thomond Park or Irish Independent Park, or by calling 0818 719 300.
