ALTHOUGH MUNSTER FACE into the Heineken Champions Cup campaign with defeat to Leinster still fresh in the memory, head coach Johann van Graan was in upbeat mood ahead of Saturday’s opener in Exeter.
The South African is confident that the performance in the 30-22 Aviva Stadium loss can be built upon to challenge the Premiership’s form side.
The southern province got a taster of what they can expect from Rob Baxter’s men in Sandy Park as they were subjected to serious line-out and maul pressure.
Van Graan’s pack held up well when they were under the pump, but they can expect to endure more of the same against the 2017 champions of England who have continually shunned penalties in favour of their maul on the way to scoring 29 tries so far this season.
“Last week was good practice on both sides of the ball,” said Van Graan in Munster’s UL base today.
“I thought we stopped some of their mauls pretty well, and some we didn’t. I thought we mauled pretty well, we know the threat that’s coming from that point of view.
We will have to be at our best to stop their maul, but that’s what Champions Cup rugby is all about, it’s about when the best teams play against each other. And it’s a great challenge to look forward to.”
Van Graan will also take his side to England wary of Exeter’s ‘special’ threat on kick-chase, which in turn feeds back into their mauling prowess.
While content with the reaction after falling 14-0 down in Dublin, the second-season head coach called on his charges to show composure when in position to strike in the opposition ‘red zone’ after racking up 68% of territory and 65% possession last time out.
“(The) biggest focus for us at this point is, once we enter that 22, to come away with points.
“We must also give Leinster a lot of credit, their defence is special at this stage. I thought we broke them down, what the possession and territory doesn’t say is the amount of penalties they conceded two or three yards from their line.
“So, yes, we got a lot of opportunities there but we also won quite a few penalties which we went to touch and we won scrum after scrum after scrum. So we also have to look at (the statistics) in that context.”
“Once we get into their 22, we created a lot of opportunities, one knock-on there and one knock-on there, it might have been different.”
Reason to be, if not cheerful, then positive. However, that good mood is definitely tempered by injury to Alby Mathewson, a man who arrived due to what already amounted to an injury crisis at scrum-half.
The Kiwi will undergo a scan on the knee injury sustained at the Aviva Stadium, but at present it looks unlikely that his half-back partnership with Joey Carbery will be renewed for a third successive game. With Conor Murray still out of the picture, Jack Stafford will be primed to deputise Duncan Williams in the 9 jersey.
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