Munster head coach Graham Rowntree admits his side’s strenuous travelling schedule is a “challenge” but the attitude in the group is to “get on with it”.
Rowntree’s side are in South Africa to face the Stormers and the Sharks in the final two rounds of the United Rugby Championship. This comes only a fortnight after their previous trip to Durban that saw them crash out of the Champions Cup.
Strenuous travel schedule
The unfavourable schedule is similar to what the South African sides have experienced this season with the addition of the European fixtures in the calendars.
Rowntree says the team has looked at some “good strategies” in how to deal with the travel but ultimately the focus is on getting through the week.
“It’s a challenge and you’ve got to get on with it, haven’t you?,” he said.
“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.
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“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 better.”
“Learn from adversity”
Not everything has gone according to plan for Rowntree in his first season at the helm of Munster, with a poor start followed by a solid run of games in the middle of their campaign but they have recently fallen into a slump typified by their 50-35 loss to the Sharks in the Champions Cup.
However, the coach insists his team will learn from the adversity and claims everyone is working hard to right the ship.
“You learn from adversity,” said Rowntree.
“We’ve had some adversity for one reason or another this season and the group’s tighter for it.
“This group want to achieve and a word was mentioned earlier about fizzling out, there’s no-one here going to fizzle out.
“We’re still striving to be as good as we can be and the lads have been honest.
“We’ve been honest about the last performances. What more can you do? Fix it, be honest, get on with it. Get on with the next game.”