Bernard Jackman believes Munster are primed to complete their season turnaround in style this weekend, and end their 12-year wait for a trophy.
The province take on DHL Stormers in Cape Town in Saturday's BKT United Rugby Championship Grand Final, marching to the decider after impressive away wins against both Glasgow Warriors and Leinster.
The province appear to be battle-hardened by a grueling schedule, which will see them close their season with a sixth consecutive away game, a fourth of which is in South Africa.
But despite the defending champion Stormers being favourites, Jackman believes the time has come for Munster to win their first trophy since 2011.
"I fancy them to win," he said on the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
The Stormers booked their place back in the final with wins against the Bulls and Connacht, but Jackman says Munster have the weapons to deal with their style of play.
"I think they have the Stormers' number, I think the Stormers are a brilliant side but are incredibly loose. They give you opportunities and are a little bit wild. The way Munster are defending lately, they'll fancy their chances.
"They'll make linebreaks [the Stormers], but if you scramble well you can get after that ruck and into the passing channel.
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"This is a phenomenal opportunity for Munster. I know they're building, I know they'll be better next year, but it's so hard to get silverware at the moment, between Champions Cup and URC.
"This is a phenomenal opportunity for Munster to get that trophy, which would be massive for them in terms of recognising how they've improved this year, but also giving the fans hope and belief."
Jackman added that having spoken to Munster assistant - and his former coaching partner - Mike Prendergast at an event last week, the Munster squad aren't put off by the prospect of a third trip to South Africa in the space of two months.
"They're so excited about it. They're so happy with how things have turned for them, and it's down to good coaching and good leadership.
"Rowntree's been really impressive how he managed those difficult periods, how he didn't second guess himself and try 'go back to go forward', if you get me. They stuck with what they wanted to build."
And the former Grenoble and Dragons boss says they will have taken real confidence by how they struck late to defeat Leinster in the semi-finals.
"They had the belief to go and win it. When you think about that game, it's a miracle they won it because of how many 22 opportunities they blew. It was down to good Leinster defence, but they dominated that match."
Despite dominating that semi-final against Leinster, Munster were quite wasteful in attack, before Jack Crowley's late drop goal [pictured below] sealed a 16-15 win.
Munster women's assistant coach Fiona Hayes joined Jackman on the RTÉ Rugby podcast, and says they have to be more efficient in attack if they're to pull off a famous victory.
"Leinster two weeks ago, they'll have looked at that, and see how they can be better in that area, because they weren't clinical," she said.
"For having such a huge performance, and so much possession, they could have come away having had a loss at the Aviva having got themselves into those perfect areas of scoring.
"I personally think it's going to be out wide at the breakdown where they'll really go after the Stormers. We know they like to throw the ball around and there are turnover to be won out there. The only thing, and they'll have to really look at it, discipline is going to be huge."
While Munster struggled to convert their chances, they repeatedly turned down shots at goal in favour of going for the try.
And Hayes doesn't expect Rowntree's side to become conservative overnight.
"The pressure is off Munster. Obviously they want to win silverware, it's a big thing down here in Munster, to get over that threshold and win something.
"Stormers are favourites, especially in South Africa. The last time they played Evan Roos and Herschel Jantjies weren't starting. They add a lot to the Stormers team. Libbok's kicking wasn't great, so this Munster team are going to go out and fire some shots."
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Follow Stormers v Munster in the United Rugby Championship Grand Final this Saturday with our live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport.
Listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1, with kick-off at 5.30pm.
