Munster have confirmed senior coach Mike Prendergast will depart the club at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
The Limerick native will leave after four years with his home province amid speculation he is to team up with former Munster head coach Johann van Graan at Premiership champions Bath as attack coach.<\/p>\n
Prendergarst, a former Munster player, returned to his home province in 2022 following a 10-year coaching spell in France with Racing 92, Stade Fran\u00e7ais, Oyonnax and Grenoble.<\/p>\n
In his first season back at Munster, the Irish province won the United Rugby Championship – their first league title for 12 seasons – and last season they reached the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup.<\/p>\n
While admitting it was a “very difficult decision” to leave Clayton McMillan’s coaching ticket, Prendergast is hopeful he can enjoy further success to go out on a high.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been in lots of different environments coaching and playing over the years but Munster will always hold a special place in my heart and it has been a really enjoyable four years,” said Prendergast, who has also worked at international level with Ireland.<\/p>\n
“Working with the players and coaches has been an absolute pleasure but I believe now is the right time for a new challenge.<\/p>\n
“I will be giving it my all to ensure that the club can be as successful as it can be as we approach the business end of the season.<\/p>\n
“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ian, Clayton, the coaches, players and Munster fans for all of their support.”<\/p>\n
Munster head coach McMillan said he is “sorry” to lose Prendergast from his coaching team, but wished him well.<\/p>\n
“Since arriving in Ireland last summer, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Mike and it’s clear why he is so highly regarded,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He is a brilliant coach with a sharp rugby mind and an ability to connect with players in a way that brings the best out of them.<\/p>\n
“His contribution to our coaching group and to the wider environment will be a loss. While we are sorry to see him move on, I have no doubt he will thrive in whatever challenge comes next.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Munster have confirmed senior coach Mike Prendergast will depart the club at the end of the season. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-505679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}