{"id":361386,"date":"2026-03-23T19:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361386\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T19:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:57:08","slug":"munster-boosted-by-energy-of-returning-ireland-stars-ahead-of-tough-bulls-test-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361386\/","title":{"rendered":"Munster boosted by \u2018energy\u2019 of returning Ireland stars ahead of tough Bulls test \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Munster<\/a> defence coach Denis Leamy said that the arrival of Irish internationals Jack Crowley, Craig Casey and Jeremy Loughman in South Africa is a timely boost as they prepare to bounce back from their 45-0 mauling to the Sharks when they take on the Bulls next Saturday afternoon at Loftus Versfeld.<\/p>\n

Munster have decamped south from Durban to Cape Town where they will be based at sea level until the weekend, travelling up to altitude in Pretoria on Friday afternoon for the clash with the Bulls.<\/p>\n

The Irish trio, who were given a break last week after their exploits with Ireland, are set to feature next weekend. Casey joined the squad in Durban and Crowley and Loughman travelled direct to Cape Town and met the group there on Sunday before a squad meeting that night addressed the Sharks loss and started preparations for the Bulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met the boys here yesterday and they\u2019ve come with a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm. Obviously, they\u2019re bouncing back from the very successful Six Nations with Ireland,\u201d said Leamy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to have them back and their voices and their leadership is really critical to us. They\u2019ve given everyone a bit of a bounce coming in and last night\u2019s meeting was very, very good and they had a big part to play in that as well. So on we go.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big couple of days ahead of us and we look forward to the challenge that\u2019s going to be the Bulls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leamy said they have been in difficult binds before, particularly in South Africa, and found a way to work out of them and he\u2019s confident they can do that again this time as the battle intensifies for knock-out places in the URC.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, initially the reaction is always one of huge disappointment when something like that happens,\u201d said the former Irish backrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut over the last couple of days, we\u2019ve gathered ourselves. We had a very good meeting here in Cape Town last night where the players led it and they analysed the game and they fed back really, really well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s an acceptance that we need to be much better than we were. Sometimes that happens in the game, but the focus is very much looking forward, getting a lot of confidence from each other through our training week and having a big bounce back hopefully. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I think ultimately the Sharks were very good on the night. We struggled in a number of areas. We didn\u2019t take our opportunities when we entered their score zone. We gave away a number of penalties which gave them access into our score zone and they were very efficient in getting over our line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a couple of tries at the end that were freakish moments, but that\u2019s the game. You just have to try and limit opportunities to speedsters like [Makazole] Mapimpi and these sort of guys. So there\u2019s no feeling sorry for ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the game. We know that\u2019s what can happen when you step out on to the pitch if you don\u2019t deliver. There\u2019s quality teams, especially in this part of the world, that can hurt you badly and unfortunately we were on the receiving end the other night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Munster have now lost eight of their last 12 games and a Bulls side who occupy the final qualification spot on points difference from Connacht will be fired up, not least after their 40-7 drubbing of Cardiff at the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it doesn\u2019t get any easier, does it? That\u2019s a fact,\u201d added Leamy. \u201cObviously, see what they did to Cardiff the other night. It\u2019s a real challenge. It\u2019s one of the toughest places in the world to play rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look, we\u2019ve been here before. We\u2019ve won down here before. We\u2019ll take belief from that. The great thing about being a rugby player is you get to have the chance week after week to put some of the wrongs to right and that\u2019s what we plan to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Munster defence coach Denis Leamy said that the arrival of Irish internationals Jack Crowley, Craig Casey and Jeremy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[65813,61,60,43771,11897,43,14881],"class_list":["post-361386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-craig-casey","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jack-crowley","tag-munster-rugby","tag-news","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}