Jerry Flannery insists it's business as usual at Munster

MUNSTER scrum coach Jerry Flannery insists the shock news of Rassie Erasmus’ departure from the province next December has not had any negative impact on pre-season preparations.

Director of Rugby Erasmus and defence coach Jacques Nienaber, leave Munster at the end of this year to take up positions with the South African Rugby Union.

Last season’s beaten finalists Munster face Benetton Rugby in their Guinness PRO14 opening round fixture at Musgrave Park on Friday night, 7.35pm.

“It was weird with the announcement at the start, but it in no way has it affected our rugby,” Flannery said at the province’s High Performance Centre this Monday.

“Our main concern was that we felt we put down a good season last year and the main thing for us is to get consistency and continuity, year-on-year-on-year.

“Felix (Jones) put an awful lot of work into our attack game in the off-season and you were worried then when Rassie (Erasmus) and Jacques (Nienaber) were leaving, is there someone else going to come in straight away, is that work down the drain, but from a rugby point of view, it has been incredibly positive.

“We have consolidated the good things that we did last year. We have looked where we can make a step up and we have been layering that in and developing the players’ skill-sets, so that we can play a little bit more of an expansive game when necessary, when it is on.

“We are not getting it 100% right, we are far from that, but I can see that we are creating opportunities and we are able to execute things that we weren’t doing last year.”