Denis Leamy has warned the Munster revival may take some time as he and the new coaching team prepare for their opening game of the season on Saturday.
Munster begin their BKT United Rugby Championship campaign away to Cardiff on Saturday (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), in a game that has been pushed back from its original Friday night billing due to the visit of Britain's King Charles III to the Welsh capital.
The province will have back rows Alex Kendellen and John Hodnett available again after they returned to full training following injury, but Gavin Combes and Andrew Conway continue to be sidelined.
Leamy returned to Munster over the summer as defence coach under Graham Rowntree, who has taken on the head coaching role from former boss Johann van Graan.
The Tipperary native is one of three former Munster players on the new coaching ticket, along with Mike Prendergast who rejoins from Racing 92, and Andi Kyricaou who is promoted from the academy coaching team.
"It's a tough challenge, it really is," Leamy says of his team's start to the season which sees them face Cardiff and Dragons in Wales on consecutive weeks.
"Going away from home, going to Wales, Cardiff play very fast, attractive rugby. When they get into their style of play they cause a lot of trouble around the pitch. They can hit you up close, out wide, they are a really good side."
And the defence specialist says fans will have to stay patient to allow he and his fellow coaches put their own stamp on Munster.
"We've been together only a number of weeks, that's the reality of it. It's a big game on Saturday, and it's one that we will go after very hard.
"We have to be realistic in that it will take a little bit of time to bed in and gel. We'll go all guns blazing but there's a big picture here as well, and whatever the result is on Saturday we move on and get better and better."
Munster prepared for the new season with pre-season games against London Irish and Gloucester at Musgrave Park, and despite suffering defeat on both occasions, Leamy says they have learned a lot in recent weeks.
"To be honest with you, it was a big challenge. Just trying to gel everything together over the course of four or five weeks, it was a big challenge but I think we've done it really well in fairness.
"I think the players, the way they've adapted to the style of training, to the speed we’re asking them to train at; if you’ve been to any of our sessions we don’t have a huge amount of huddles, we don’t talk, we just really go with our action.
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"We want them to be stressed, we want them to feel fatigue. We want them doing lineouts under pressure, we want them to defending under pressure, attacking under fatigue and stuff like that. We’ve tried to create a really tough environment through rugby, through games and by and large it’s been very effective so far.
"It is early in the season and when you shorten down a pre-season like this it’s really for what you get later in the season. That fatigue factor after Christmas and that load of game after game after game – that attrition that happens over a period of time.
"So we should see, I’m hopeful we’ll see the benefits of that after Christmas and we’ll have a little bit more juice going forward."
Having spent almost three years at Leinster, first as a player development officer and eventually part of the senior coaching team, the former Ireland international was snapped up by his home province as part of Rowntree's coaching ticket, with his move officially confirmed in June.
And while the Cashel man says it was an "honour" to be asked to return, he didn't make the decision based purely on emotion.
"There was loads to think about. It wasn't an offer I was really expecting.
"I was aware that Munster were looking for a new coaching team, I heard nothing for a long time so I presumed there was a process going on with other people. I was working in a really good environment with Leinster and was very happy in that role. But when the chance came it was a big opportunity to take over a defensive brief, putting your own stamp on that brief, and it was a promotion in effect.
"I thought long and hard about it, and it was the right decision for me. Leinster were very accommodating in allowing me to go back down the road.
"Leo [Cullen] understood where I was coming from in terms of family, and being from Munster, he was very good in allowing that to happen. I was very appreciative from all sides, for Munster giving me the offer, it was a huge honour to be given the offer and a massive opportunity for me, one that I'm really enjoying."
Follow the 2022/23 BKT United Rugby Championship across RTÉ radio, TV, RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Watch live coverage of Cardiff v Munster and Zebre Parma v Leinster (17 September), Stormers v Connacht (24 September) and Dragons v Munster (25 September) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
