It will be like the first day of pre-season, only with even more feeling. Tomorrow at their high-performance centre at UL, the entire Munster squad will come together for the first time in over eight weeks.
Divided into three separate bubbles at one point, it marks the passing of a particularly trying time for the province.
“From a mental and a human perspective it will be brilliant to have the guys back,” admitted head coach Johann van Graan.
"There's some coaches, some staff, some players not here, we haven't seen each other for a very long time," he added, with Graham Rowntree apparently one of the notable absentees from the warm-up prior to Saturday night's 19-13 win over Castres at Thomond Park.
“The last few weeks have taken a big emotional toll and just the human side of it, to hopefully be all together in the HPC on Tuesday will be good for everybody to meet each other. At the end of the day this is a team sport and we’re a proud club in terms of how we look after its people and Munster have looked after its people very well over the last few weeks.
“It’s important that we get to Tuesday morning and hopefully we’ll all be in a room together and can’t wait for that.”
David Kilcoyne has spoken about the influence of their on-site sports psychologist Caroline Currid in changing the collective mindset of the enlarged squad after the emotional high of the Wasps game in adapting to a different challenge.
There will now have to be another shift prior to the first of three derbies over the festive season, beginning with the St Stephen’s Day derby against Leinster at Thomond Park next Sunday, when the new Government restrictions will mean a 5,000 capacity after all 27,000 tickets had been sold and the logistical challenges that will ensure.
“Yeah, look, it will be disruption again,” admitted Van Graan. “Some guys that will play next Sunday wouldn’t have played for a very long time. We’re going to keep rotating the squad, we’ve got to get some guys back on to the pitch.
“There are six games left in this block so yes, it’s a different challenge. We haven’t been together, the three groups, but we’ve got Christmas Eve plus Christmas Day leading into a game and then it’s Munster versus Leinster which is always a massive day in our calendar.
“I’ve said it before, that’s brilliant for Irish rugby. Unfortunately we won’t have a packed and a sold-out Thomond Park but that’s currently the way life works and everybody in rugby is in this together and hopefully we’ll get through on the other side.”
Tadhg Beirne and Damian de Allende are outstanding rugby players in a rich vein of form but perhaps it was no coincidence that Munster's best two players on the night were their two most match-hardened. Munster need games.
"I definitely agree. Let's just use two guys as an example that didn't play tonight, Mike Haley and Simon Zebo. They haven't played in a very long time. Their last game was Connacht," said Van Graan in reference to their game on October 16th, over nine weeks ago.
“If you think back now, that’s the middle of October, and we are heading into Christmas now. Guys need to play. The positive is we’ve got such a good squad that we’ve got a brilliant back three. It’s about finding the balance between continuity and giving guys some games.
“Obviously we can only play one game a week so we will definitely rotate the squad over the next three weeks – Leinster, Connacht and Ulster – and hopefully after that we will be back to full strength against Castres in the middle of January.”
Munster are used to playing on St Stephen’s Day, and at least they will have the comforts of home, in every sense.
“We’ll finish our training on the morning of Christmas Eve. From my point of view in the last five years family is incredibly important so I want guys to go to their homes, to their families, spend Christmas Eve there, spend Christmas Day there.
“We play at 7.30 on the 26th, the players have done this many, many times, so the most important thing is to spend time over Christmas with your family. We’ll rejoin on the Sunday and then it’s a great event to play Leinster.”
