Munster's European challenge starts with home focus

After a turbulent couple of months, things are starting to turn in Munster's favour.

The coaching situation hasn't been fully cleared up yet, but the province has been able to put some stability on the situation by keeping Mike Prendergast and Denis Leamy at Thomond Park for another couple of years, while their injury toll is starting to ease.

The latest bit of good news came on Tuesday, when the province announced the arrival of New Zealander Chris Boyd as a performance consultant.

The 66-year-old is a highly regarded and experienced coach who laid the foundations, both in terms of player and coach development, at the Northampton Saints for their Premiership title in 2024. Boyd may only be in Limerick for a few months, but his advisory role has the potential to be as influential as Graham Henry's brief stint at Leinster in 2016.

There's a sense that Munster are now getting a handle on the medium and long term, but this weekend they need to go all-in on the short term, as Stade Francais come to town (Live on RTÉ2/Player) today in the opening round of the Investec Champions Cup.

While the province have gone well in the URC in the last two seasons, their form in this competition has left a lot to be desired.

It's five years since Munster last reached the semi-final, but more worryingly they've missed out on the quarter-finals in each of the last two seasons, losing heavily to the Sharks in 2023, before they were knocked out by the Northampton Saints in the last 16 back in April.

That 2022/23 last-16 exit owed a lot to a tough draw, with two games against Toulouse in the pool stage leaving them down in the bottom half of the seeding, and travelling to Durban in the last 16. Last season, however, they had no such excuse.

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