MUNSTER HEAD COACH Clayton McMillan says they will head to South Africa in a couple of weeks with a clear focus on what’s required for the knockout stages of the URC and also have a crack at the Challenge Cup.

His side just about did enough to see off Zebre 21-7 in difficult conditions at Thomond Park and while the try bonus point never really looked on the cards, the victory keeps them in contention for home advantage in the quarter-final stage of the URC.

McMillan said a lot can be learned about dealing with breaks of three or four weeks and they hope to use that experience well as they prepare for clashes against the Sharks and the Bulls later this month after another layoff.

“If you look at the games over the weekend you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who said they had seen a real spectacle which is probably reflective of the challenges of not playing for three or four weeks and getting yourself up for a one-off match,” said the New Zealander.

“We now have two or three weeks before the next game but at the end of the day we got four points and are still in the hunt.

“We’re obviously happy to come away with the win because they are a side that have the potential to upset you if you are not quite there and while it wasn’t perfect, there was lots of good stuff we can build on.”

Munster didn’t build on an early try from Shane Daly and after being level 7-7 until 16 minutes from the end, they got over the line with tries from Alex Kendellen and Lee Barron.

“It was a tight old affair but we expected that,” added McMillan. “Zebre might be sitting at the bottom of the table but they’re a niggly side and they’ve shown that they can push teams right to the end and that’s what we expected and that’s what we experienced today.

“We felt like we probably left a lot of points out on the park, created a number of opportunities, probably one pass away or one phase more was required in the moment but we lost those moments and the game potentially was a bit tighter than what it needed to be.”

Remarkably, they won’t be at home again in the URC until they host Ulster at Thomond Park on 25 April, so it was important they did not slip up in this one when a defeat would have meant losing four times in-a-row at the Limerick venue for the first time.

“I was delighted with the effort of the lads,” said McMillan. “We’ve trained really hard after a week off post Glasgow. To come back, put a good three-week shift in and get a result.

“But what it showed us is that you can train all you like but there’s nothing quite like the pressure of getting out there and playing rugby.”