Stephen Larkham claims Munster's Covid troubles in South Africa might be a 'blessing in disguise' as the Reds squad is free of the virus heading into Saturday's clash with Connacht.
Despite having over 30 senior players isolating at one stage as Covid positive or as close contacts, both in Cape Town and back home, the province managed to win both of their Heineken Champions Cup pool games before Christmas, and then the URC derby clash with Leinster on St Stephen's Day was postponed.
Connacht and Munster have today reported no Covid issues in their latest round of PCR testing, so at the moment it is all systems go for the Sportsground clash.
Asked if it was a relief to have a full squad available - barring injuries to Joey Carbery, RG Snyman, Calvin Nash and Rowan Osborne - the Reds' senior coach Larkham replied: “It might be a blessing in disguise that we had a number of cases coming back from South Africa and hopefully that makes them a little bit more immune.
"We saw on the week all but one game went ahead so the other teams are getting affected by it but hopefully we’ve had our little run and we can push forward.
"We’ve got enough guys who’ve had the virus now, we can probably field a team every single week going forward.”
With the Leinster game called off, Munster finished training last Wednesday and enjoyed the Christmas break before returning to training on Monday.
“We’ve had a few breaks, I guess, over the last month and a bit but that was nice to get the prep right around Christmas," said the Australian.
"Some of the boys travelled a fair distance to get home, other guys just prepped what they would normally do for Christmas Day, they prepped that a little bit earlier.
"We’ve got a training session this afternoon, we’ve had one this morning.
"We had a unit session this morning, we had a good run yesterday and we’ve obviously got a lot of Covid around at the moment.
"So we’re at the stage where we’re tracking pretty well but things change pretty rapidly over the course of 24 hours.”
Having said that, there hasn't been much played by any of the clubs over the past few months, since the break for the November internationals.
It was even worse for Larkham, head coach Johann van Graan and others in the backroom staff as they were coming out of isolation and missed the famous win over Wasps in Coventry.
“I wouldn’t class it as frustration," Larkham said.
"I think it’s actually been quite enjoyable to watch both European games, Wasps in particular, with the amount of changes that we had, the young guys that came in.
“The way that programme was put together that week was just amazing to watch.
"We were all sitting in isolation somewhere, trying to do our best to prep the team but that was a really enjoyable week.
“And then coming into Castres, again a lot of changes, guys coming out of isolation, bringing the group together, yeah, there was a fair bit in that. No frustration, just the inevitability of coming together and seeing it all combine once more.
“And then frustration last week? I guess there’s a bit of frustration, the fact we have to make these games up now.
"You know, the Bulls, the Lions and Leinster now, we have to make those games up so there’s going to be a fairly heavy run moving forward but even that Leinster week, to have the four extra days off was actually a pretty good blessing.
“I think guys going into Christmas nice and relaxed, enjoying their time at home and then they’ve come back in this week nice and refreshed.
"So there hasn’t been a lot of frustration, I think there are certain individuals, maybe the double isolation was a bit of a trek for them but outside of that I think there’s been a lot of positives in this last month as well.”
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