Northampton Saints lock Chunya Munga is expecting a challenging contest as Scarlets visit cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens this weekend in the final round of Investec Champions Cup pool stage fixtures.
Saints qualified for the Round-of-16 in Europe last Sunday, courtesy a try-scoring bonus point in the 50-28 defeat away to Bordeaux-Bégles at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.
But plenty remains at stake heading into the Sunday’s game (kick-off: 3:15pm) as the men in Black, Green and Gold remain in the hunt for home advantage in the knock-out stages of Europe for a third successive season – a limited number of tickets are still available by clicking HERE.
“We know it won’t be an easy game; it will be tough,” Munga said. “But for this group of players, it will be perfect. We want to kick on in Europe.
The visitors, Scarlets, are yet to register a victory in Pool 4 of the Investec Champions Cup; however, they lost by just one point in Round 1 to Bristol at home, and ran Section Paloise close last weekend, so Saints are under no illusions when it comes to Sunday’s fixture.
“We all grew up watching England vs Wales and know the importance of that fixture, so I’m pretty sure it will be a feisty contest,” Munga continued.
“I love playing for this team. I think it will be a very tough contest against a Scarlets side that will be very physical.
“As a group, we don’t hammer the pressure that we have to win. What we believe in is putting in strong performances, and the results will take care of themselves.
“We very much believe we will win games, not because they come out of nothing, but because we train so hard and we’ve put that work in as a group.”
Munga arrived as a replacement in France last weekend and believes Saints can take more than just a bonus point away from the fixture as they move forward in Europe.
“The result in Bordeaux is such a massive game to learn from,” Munga said.
“The biggest loss for us would be coming away from Sunday without taking any learnings, and what that game has taught us is that we are good enough to compete in Europe, but if we don’t get certain things right, we will get punished because there are such good sides out there and certain players who will capitalise on errors.”