MUNSTER DEFENCE COACH Denis Leamy feels the province can take plenty of positives from Sunday’s 18-13 defeat to Toulouse, as they aim to pick up their first win of the Champions Cup season in Northampton this weekend.

After starting brightly at Thomond Park, moving into an early 7-0 lead, Munster were eventually undone in the thick Limerick fog by a Toulouse side who managed the conditions smartly and gave the home side real problems with their power game.

“We’ve been over a lot of that game, and the boys acquitted themselves very well,” Leamy said.

Obviously we never want to lose at Thomond Park, but I think there was loads of good stuff, both sides of the ball, in terms of how we defended phase play, attacked in phase play. We had some great moments at scrum time, so there were loads of good stuff.

“Toulouse are up there with the top two or three in Europe, they posed us loads of questions, and by and large our boys responded really, really well. We got caught a couple of times in terms of reads out of maul plays, but these are things we can improve on. All in all, I think we’ll be disappointed with how it went, but in terms of a performance there was loads of good in it.”

The good Leamy references was obvious. Munster’s attack looked sharp when they were buzzing in the first half, with Joey Carbery and Mike Haley both enjoying some nice moments, while Jack Crowley added some extra creatively when introduced at centre in the second half.

“I thought Jack did really well. He’s obviously a very talented lad, he has loads of ability and gives us a lot in a 12 jersey. It’s great to have backs, especially, that can play in different positions. It’s probably the way the game is going, you must have the ability to play across the backline, and Jack can do that at 12 or 10 or 15. 

In phase play he can play out the back, and bring players into the game with his little subtle skills, and he also has the ability to linebreak. He’s a player that has an awful lot of talent, and he’ll improve as well as he progresses through his career.”

What didn’t work was also plainly obvious. At times, Munster struggled to deal with Toulouse’s power game, an area they will have to cope with if they are to go deep in the tournament this season.

And Leamy feels the presence of the South African teams in the URC will help Munster in their efforts to become more solid against teams who hold an advantage in this departement.

“One of the things that we’ve been exposed to lately is the South African teams coming into the URC, and I think that’s been great prep in terms of what the French and English sides bring in terms of their power-based games,” he continued.

Munster defence coach Denis Leamy. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“That’s really great prep in terms of exposing us to that. We’ve dealt with that already in terms of the Bulls this season, we had a good hit-out against them here.

“We’re going to get plenty of tests and examinations around that maul, that pick-and-drive game close to lines.

Like every aspect of our game, it’s something we’re working on. We shine lights on it all the time and try to be technically better in our tackle – how do we set ourselves to be better in terms of the violence or power we can generate through our tackle. So that’s a work in progress.”

This weekend the province head to England for a second round Champions Cup date with Northampton, who are reeling from a heavy defeat to La Rochelle on the opening weekend.

“We have to be very measured in what we do. It’s a battle of the gainline really in terms of who is going to win it, pure and simple. 

“We have to be very good in our contacts, obviously we have to set ourselves up to be good in the tackle, to be good in our two-man shots, to apply pressure around the breakdown in a constructive manner, not to give away penalties.

“The last thing we want to do is dive into rucks and expose ourselves in terms of our defensive chain, or else give away penalties which allows access deep into the 22 and allows that mauling game to come into play.

“So we have to be very measured, we have to be aggressive. Our linespeed, our connections, they’ve got [Alex] Mitchell at 9 who will test us around the rucks. So in terms of our pillar and our next defender out from that, we’ve to be very calculated and disciplined in our roles.”

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