Mike Prendergast admits he was left disappointed after he missed out on the Munster head coach role, but says he's rowing in fully behind the province’s new boss Clayton McMillan.
McMillan was confirmed as Munster’s next head coach last month, and the highly regarded New Zealander will move to Limerick this summer after he completes his final season with the Chiefs in Super Rugby.
As part of the coaching restructure, Prendergast will be promoted from attack coach to a wider-ranging role of senior coach, but that position was a consolation prize for the former Munster scrum-half, who had been the favourite to succeed Graham Rowntree in the role.
The Limerick man had spoken openly about his desire to become head coach of his home province, and while he admits he was left disappointed by the decision, he is fully committed to his new role.
"I was disappointed obviously," he told RTÉ Sport.
"If you go for a job and you don't get it, the natural feeling is you’re disappointed. I think in this game you don't have much time to feel sorry yourself and you just have to move on.
"As I said from early doors when it opened up, that I was putting my name in there. It didn't happen now, but maybe sometime down the future it will."
McMillan (above), who coached an All Blacks XV against Munster at Thomond Park last November, was in Limerick last week to meet the team, a short visit before returning to New Zealand after the Chiefs’ Super Rugby bye-week.
"I’ve still got a very good role here which is a very pleasing aspect as well, and having met up with Clayton and sat down with him and listened to what his vision is, is exciting.
"It was good to catch up with him.
"There was this bit of a disappointment, it’s parked now, and having sat down and chatted to Clayton there is a lot to look forward to next season when that eventually comes," Prendergast added.
The province recovered from back-to-back defeats with a dramatic 30-24 win against Connacht last Saturday, a confidence boost that is coming at just the right time as they travel to La Rochelle this weekend to take on Ronan O’Gara’s two-time European champions in the round of 16 in the Investec Champions Cup.
Peter O’Mahony is in contention to play after missing last week’s win in Castlebar due to a minor knock, while Thaakir Abrahams and Jack O’Donoghue are also pushing to return from layoffs.
And Prendergast says they will travel to Stade Marcel Deflandre with renewed energy, to face a La Rochelle side who have seven defeats and a draw in their last eight games.
"Confidence in sport, any sport, is a massive thing.
"I think having players coming back just keeps that competitiveness around the place. You could see it in the standards of training in the last couple of weeks with guys returning from injury and the international players.
"They’ve been in-form as well, and with both of our half-backs from last week there’s a bit of a spring in their step as well, which is massively important, especially in that type of game. We’re hugely looking forward to it.
"Looking at their [La Rochelle’s] results, you have to park that. I know the way the French will approach this, they will take confidence knowing they have won this competition twice in the last three years, and I have no doubt ROG will be shaping them in the right frame of mind, in what we’re going to bring.
"It’s a huge challenge. It’s a really exciting challenge, having the ROG-factor makes it more exciting, albeit he won't be on the pitch, but the influence he has over the team.
"What he’s done for them as a club alone over the last number of years, he will be looking for something back from them this weekend.
"It’s a change of a competition, they’ve gone through a number of games that haven't went their way, and they will look at this to be the one to change their season.
"I spoke to the players yesterday morning to say that we don't want to be the team that allows them the confidence to get back to where they want to get to," Prendergast added.
Watch Leinster v Harlequins in the Champions Cup on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Listen to live commentary of La Rochelle v Munster (5.30pm) and updates from Leinster v Harlequins (3pm) in the Champions Cup on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
