MUNSTER FORWARD JAMES COUGHLAN says his team’s feet are firmly on the ground despite the riot they ran at Thomond Park this afternoon.
Coughlan, who scored Munster’s first try in the 38-6 win, revealed that his teammates came out firing in the second half and used pack power to sap the Scots’ fight. The No.8 was left out of Joe Schmidt’s extended Ireland squad for the Six Nations during the week and faces a fight from Robin Copeland for his jersey next season. Today, and not for the first time, he proved his worth.
Coughlan told Sky Sports, “Maybe in the first half we tried to do a little too much; a few knock-ons and we lost shape but we were delighted with the second-half performance. We were clinical when we needed to and we got through the phases. We’re happy to be at home [in the quarter finals]. The first objective is to get in and if you can get a home game then that’s all the better.”
“It’s a possession game so we had to get into the right areas and force them to make mistakes,” he added. “Maybe we let them have too much ball in the first-half. When you’re pushing things and trying passes that aren’t on, that’s going to happen. We’re delighted with that second-half performance and I think the forwards will be happy looking at the video [replays] on Monday.”
Coughlan joked that the forwards were eager to inflict as much hurt on Edinburgh as possible and praised the contribution of locks Paul O’Connell and Dave Foley. He said, “We’ve enough class in the backline to do some damage but when the ball is in the scrum and it’s going forward, the scrum-half isn’t getting it. I thought the front row was exceptional with the weight from Paulie and Fols coming through. We’re in a good run of form and we’ll have to keep it going.
“We won’t worry about anything other than winning our quarter final. We won’t get ahead of ourselves and know that whoever we’re going to be playing, it’s going to take a fantastic performance by us [to win]. We’re delighted, we’re in. It’s a home quarter final but we won’t lose the run of ourselves.”
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