Munster’s Jack O’Donoghue is relishing the opportunity to work under new coach Johann van Graan.

Jack O’Donoghue has had three different head coaches during his time with Munster, Anthony Foley, Rassie Erasmus and now Johann van Graan. All those superb insights and he is still only 24 years of age.

The newest addition, van Graan, joins the province with a superb coaching CV having won two Super Rugby titles as a coach at the Bulls as well as coaching at an International level for the Springbok’s for the last six years.

O’Donoghue was also on media duty on Tuesday and the back row admit’s he’s really looking forward to getting to work with Van Graan both on a professional and a personal level.

“As a coach I’m very excited. He’s been coaching for nearly thirteen years now. He cut his playing carer short and has been 9 years with the bulls and 6 years with South Africa and I’m really eager to sit down and get to know him.

“I haven’t had too much time to get to know him personally but from what he’s talked about he very much wants to have a relationship with his players and be able to sit down and chat and not just deal with on field stuff, but to deal with off field stuff.”

However, for the South African, things only get tougher after the Zebre game with Osprey’s this Saturday followed by back to back Champion Cup fixtures against old European rivals Leicester Tigers which is in turn followed by a St. Stephen’s day clash with Leinster in the Pro 14, all in the space of four weeks. A baptism of fire no doubt, but one the Waterford native knows the new man completely understands

“I think he knows himself. I think he was here for the Racing Game so he experienced that as a supporter so I suppose it will be different to experience as a coach. I don’t think we need to kind of build up to occasion.

“We know its going to be massive, we know its where your season can kind of take a turn for better or for worse so its something that he’ll obviously address next week but at the moment we are just very focused on Ospreys because with the internationals only coming back from their duty we’re only getting back into the swing of things now”

Whilst Van Graan didn’t have a huge amount of input in the Zebre game, he took charge of the province fully this week and will have a big part to play from here on out.

One of the main things he is sure to work on is Munster’s discipline issues, which helped the Italians get back into contention at the end of the first half last week due to two successive yellow cards, but tries from Alex Wooton (2) and academy winger Calvin Nash in the second half made sure of the bonus point victory.

Whilst it wasn’t perfect from the away side’s point of view, it was a win none the less and is a good starting block according to the former Ireland Under 20 captain, going into this huge run of fixtures.

“It’s building on last weeks performance. We did a lot of good things but our ill discipline was very bad and that’s what we’ll try and address this week against the Ospreys. They’ve two great goal kickers Biggar and Davies, they’ll punish us if we give them the penalties in the right areas so its something that we will address this week.

“But then its also trying to get another good performance back home, we’re back in Irish Independent park, its really exciting place to play. There’s always a good buzz around the stadium so its exciting and that will obviously build into Europe.”

It will be van Graan’s first home game and with tickets already selling out at Irish Independent park, he’s sure to get the perfect reception on Saturday. O’Donoghue says the players are excited to get to run out in front of a packed Musgrave Park.

Great to be back in Cork last night. Cheers to everyone who came out to support us. Unbelievable atmosphere as always 🙌🏼 #SUAF 🔴

— Jack ODonoghue (@JackODonoghue8) November 4, 2017

“If you had 8000 people packed into Irish Independent park there’s just a great atmosphere where If there was 8000 people in Thomond they might be scattered and spread out a bit so it always is a great buzz down in irish Independent park. The Cork lads really love it there and I enjoy playing my rugby down there as well so I’ve no complaints”