Prendergast hoping Boyd's Northampton stardust can rub off on Munster
MUNSTER'S MIKE PRENDERGAST has hailed the steadying impact of Kiwi coach Chris Boyd as a performance consultant with the province during a turbulent season off the field.
And Prendergast is hopeful that Munster will see the influence of the experienced 66-year old former New Zealand U-20 and Hurricanes coach the same way another of his former sides Northampton Saints did at the weekend when they stunned Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.
Boyd laid the foundation for that squad during his four years as director of rugby there and Prendergast is hopeful that Munster can reap a similar reward for his involvement in Munster.
He was brought in last December following the departure of head coach Graham Rowntree in October and worked with interim boss Ian Costello and his management team.
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'He's been very good. He's been very good to bounce things off,' said attack coach Prendergast. Just the experience. The man has a huge amount of experience. He has experiences in different hemispheres, different environments, different competitions.
'He was great to sit down and shoot the breeze. Very easy guy to approach, to talk to. And he assessed a lot as well.
He wasn't there coming in, talking in every meeting or anything. He was more in the background, assessing, looking. I suppose giving you the right direction, both to players and equally as much to coaches as well.'
Boyd has returned to New Zealand and coming in the opposite direction this summer will be another Kiwi Clayton McMillan who will be taking charge of Munster for the next three seasons.
Prendergast, who had been a contender for that top job, is looking forward to the new boss and is appreciative of the help he and the rest of the coaching team received from Boyd during his short-term deal.
'I had some really good, deep chats to him as a coach to a coach. Just through his experiences that he's lived, you could relate to an awful lot of them. I suppose we saw a lot of the fruit of his works with Northampton.
'We saw it last weekend in many ways. He would have been heavily involved in an awful lot of the set-up of that. And you even look at some of the players that came through his system. When he was there, some of those players were in the academy.
'I suppose how he exposed them to top-level rugby along with, respectfully, to the coaches that are there as well who have done a fantastic job and play a great brand of rugby.
'Chris has that kind of, I suppose for myself, his DNA in terms of attack, etc. It's very similar. There was great little nuggets and great conversations to have around that.
'He's left his imprint in Northampton. Hopefully that'll be the story for us as well going forward, ' added Prendergast whose side are preparing for Friday's crunch URC clash with Ulster.
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