'You've got to get on with it' - Graham Rowntree dismisses travel troubles

When Munster landed in Cape Town on Tuesday, many of their travelling party had racked up almost 20,000 air miles in two weeks.

The return journey from South Africa to Ireland following a 50-35 Champions Cup bashing at the hands of the Cell C Sharks in Durban would only have added to the long-haul weariness.

The DHL Stormers, Munster's opponents on Saturday, and the Sharks have also been traversing the globe and, like Munster, had to make return journeys stewing in the juices of European defeat.

But now it’s the Irish who have to go to the well again and come up with something special to make the BKT United Rugby Championship play-offs, and indeed book a Champions Cup place for next season.

Munster sit in fifth place but face the toughest run-in of all the competition.

The Stormers, who drew with Leinster, haven’t been beaten at home in the tournament since December 2021.

The Sharks, Saturday week’s opponents, are currently in eighth place and will be desperate to stay in the hunt. They host Benetton on Friday night.

"It’s a challenge and you’ve got to get on with it, haven’t you?," said Graham Rowntree when asked about the difficulty in keeping players fresh for the fray.

"It’s like having a load of injuries, you get on with what you’ve got.

"We’ve planned for these trips, done some good conditioning, some good strategies around recovery and sleeping on planes but this is how the game is.

"The South African teams are doing it a lot more regularly than us and they seem to get on with it and that’s been our message here, we get on with it.

"We had a good training session [Wednesday], not gone too hard today but we will tomorrow.

"No, it’s part of the job now, different challenges, getting on with things, finding out and getting