‘That gives us belief to do what we did last year’ – Graham Rowntree hoping Munster run-in history can repeat itself

This time last year, they were in a very similar position, licking their wounds having been knocked out of the Champions Cup by the Sharks in the round of 16.

After a weekend off, Munster returned to South Africa and ended the then champions Stormers’ long-standing home record that inspired their unbeaten spell en route to claiming the URC title against the odds.

Fast-forward 12 months and history is beginning to repeat itself.

Dumped out of Europe at the same stage, this time by Northampton, Munster once again had to travel to South Africa. And just as they caused a massive upset in Cape Town, Graham Rowntree’s men repeated the trick by downing the Bulls in Pretoria last weekend.

Today's Sport News in 90 Seconds - 24th April

The challenge now is to go on a similar unbeaten run until the end of the season. A vastly improved Lions side are next up in Johannesburg on Saturday evening before Munster take on Connacht, Edinburgh and Ulster in their final three regular-season games.

Now just five points off Glasgow in second, and six off leaders Leinster, Munster are in a good position, and it helps that they can draw on last season’s experience and kick on by defending their title.

“I think we do turn to that as a reference point, that actually happened,” Rowntree said. “That gives us belief to do what we did on the road last year. Turning the page, yeah, you’ve got to evolve your game and deal with what’s in front of you.

“But no, coming away from home, you can always call upon those true memories, not just false belief, but true memories of what happened last year on the road.

“You can call upon that and you concede a couple of tries in the first 10 minutes in the second half. It’s something we’ll be using.”

Despite both of Munster’s games being played at altitude, Rowntree made the call that the squad would be better off spending this week preparing at sea level in Cape Town. Again, that’s where past experience comes into play, as Rowntree explained the reasons behind the decision.

“You keep the adaptation, so, we haven’t lost the adaptation that we got last week. We just like it here. We have got fond memories. The weather is good. Good recovery, good restaurants, nice hotel, which is important.

“You’ve got to get the right place because you can pick up pick up bugs and sickness, which a lot of the teams can testify to. We like it here, and we will go back up [to Johannesburg] on Friday.

“The [GPS] numbers were good in terms of the game. We didn’t make a big deal about it. We had a short training week and we got on with it.

“We left some petrol in the tank. We didn’t train them too hard and we just stuck meticulously to a good plan.

“I think the ball-in-play [time] was 40 minutes, which is still quite high. We were trying to keep our energy and kick well in the first half. So, we had some tired bodies but again this week, we’ll keep some petrol in the tank.

“It just gets everybody away. It’s a slog, this season. We’ve had guys going with injuries, they’re back on deck now with us; we’ve guys away with the Six Nations, they’re back on deck.

“Everyone’s back on deck now and we’re able to now push on to the business end of the season.”

The Lions stand in Munster’s way of making it another South African tour to remember, but as Leinster and Connacht recently found out to their detriment, the Jo’burg-based side are no longer pushovers, especially at home.

“It will take some doing [to win],” Rowntree added. “This team is highly under-rated and they can play rugby, and they can muscle up as well. They’re a hard team.

“We’ve analysed them well. I think they’re a very under-rated team. You saw what they did to Connacht, you saw what they did to Leinster last week. We’ve got our hands full.”

Looking further ahead, Munster have been boosted by the recent confirmation that veteran duo Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray will continue playing with their home province next season.

Murray once again rolled back the years at Loftus Versfeld Stadium last weekend, with an impressive display that helped Munster to a crucial victory.

Rowntree insists that neither Murray nor O’Mahony needed much convincing to stay on and build on last season’s URC title win.

“I didn’t have to have conversations with them about that, I know that,” added the Munster head coach, who wasn’t willing to discuss the debate around Irish rugby’s central contracting system until he returns home.

“You can see that from how they train, how they present themselves every minute of the day. They’re warriors, them lads. We’re lucky. We’re blessed to have them around.

“They want to be able to carry on playing for Munster. They love the place. We want to achieve another trophy. We’ve spoken before about last year not being a one off and they feel the same thing. They’re proud Munster men.”