Saint to scholar: Munster add to brains trust with 'invaluable asset' Chris Boyd

The New Zealander won a Super Rugby title as Hurricanes head coach and then transformed Northampton Saints into a genuine contender in the English Premiership, the Saints going on to win last season’s title under his successor Phil Dowson having continued to serve the club on a consultancy basis following his departure.

With Munster preparing for the start of the Champions Cup pool campaign at home to Stade Francais this Saturday, Boyd is due to arrive at their High Performance Centre in Limerick later this week with a ringing endorsement from head of rugby operations and interim head coach Costello.

“At the moment he's here for the next couple of months through the busy period to the end of January, and then the season obviously gets quite disjointed after that,” Costello said. “So that's the phase that we've locked in.

“Working with the IRFU and looking at what we need in terms of support over a period of time, Chris was identified as somebody that could add that performance support.

“I spent a week with Chris in New Zealand a couple of years ago in the Hurricanes and I would have come across him regularly with Northampton and a couple of my close friends work with them.

“So in terms of somebody who has so much credibility and experience in coaching and then in particularly now the consultancy space, we felt that would work really well for us while obviously we're going through the process of looking for a head coach.

“His philosophy on how to play the game, his approach to coaching, what he's done in terms of mentoring people in Northampton and probably aligning a club around a vision, just that level of support, I think would be invaluable for us.” 

Costello oversaw a URC victory at home to the Lions in his first competitive match in charge last Saturday night, when backline trio Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams and Shane Daly all returned from injury and Munster will be further bolstered this weekend when the majority of their Ireland internationals will be available for selection following last month’s Autumn Nations Series.

Munster captain Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash, and Peter O’Mahony all returned to camp this week following last Saturday’s victory over Australia but Costello implied there was a doubt over one of the sextet’s availability.

“Waiting on one, but without getting into that, they are all available as in there's nobody being restricted from playing by the IRFU. Someone like Shane Daly was working his way back in through fitness. He's back at full fitness as we would have seen, he was pretty sharp at the weekend. The likes of Thomas Ahern is back in full fitness.

“Oli Jager hopefully back in next week, Dave Kilcoyne hopefully back in next week, which is that area where we've been under pressure, and hopefully again Jean Kleyn not too far away.

“A few guys come back through the A game, Liam Coombes came back and played for example, which was really encouraging as well.” 

More patience will be needed for Edwin Edogbo’s recovery from a serious Achilles injury, the interim boss explained, after the lock’s comeback was put back to around Christmas.

“We were hoping back by the end of the year. He's not done anything specific in terms of setback, but it's a slow injury. I think the key thing with Edwin is he's coming back off two Achilles (one in each leg), we have to get it right.

“He has such a future, if we get it right, and he's so important to us that I think everybody rightly is saying we've got to do this conservatively but do it right.” 

Costello also shed some light on summer signing Diarmuid Kilgallen’s wrist injury as it emerged Munster’s head of athletic performance Ged McNamara was absent on “personal leave”, with IRFU head of athletic performance and science Nick Winkelman currently assisting Munster’s strength and conditioning staff.

“Diarmuid did a scaphoid injury. He fell and he doesn't know where it happened even. Nobody knows how Diarmuid got injured. He just woke up in the morning and said this feels a bit sore, and scaphoid injury sometimes can be from a fall, he couldn't even pinpoint an event. He's just been really unlucky.

“He'd had a hamstring injury earlier, and we're always looking at how we keep people healthy and on the pitch and that's what I'm saying, that Adam Sheehan and Gordon Brett who are co-leading at the moment around their AP (athletic performance) and then Nick Winkelman who is down from the IRFU, they're doing a great job of managing all that load.”