The home stretch.

Munster Rugby’s pre-season preparations have been underway for a number of weeks now as they look to improve on last season’s heroics.

The two-time European champions reached the last four of the Champions Cup and the final of the PRO12, but will no doubt be hoping they can build on that this season and finish the campaign with some silverware.

The likes of Conor Murray and CJ Stander are set to return to the fold this week, while other stars have been hard at it the last month or so. Players have been putting the hours in both on the pitch and in the gym, building up quite an appetite in the process.

In order to maintain and build on their current state, performance nutritionist Emma Tester has given us an insight into their diet in an insightful video posted by Munster today.

“Player energy intake really does vary. What they should be doing is matching it to what they’re doing. Calorie-wise, what you’re looking at is 3 and a half thousand for a light player on a light day, but then upwards to 4 and a half to 5 thousand calories on a day that’s heavy in terms of training load,” said Tester.

“It can be a struggle to maintain that mass, but the lads have done a great job in making sure that their weights are up and that it’s holding up, and hopefully we’ll be seeing that stay throughout the season as well.”

Munster take on Connacht this Friday in a training match before travelling to Worcester next week to take on Stringer, O’Callaghan and the gang. They open up their PRO14 account with a game in Cork against Italian side Benetton Treviso.