WHAT ANGERED STEPHEN Archer the most about Munster’s loss to Edinburgh on the opening weekend of the Guinness Pro12 wasn’t that they didn’t get all four points, although that no doubt stung a great deal too.

Rather, the most disappointing aspect of Munster’s tepid display was that it came at Thomond Park, which has been a cauldron of intimidation and success for the province over the years.

“We pride ourselves on our home form and we shouldn’t be losing there. That’s not our standard. To put up a poor performance like that at home is unacceptable,” Archer said.

Despite the strong running of CJ Stander, who scored two tries, the Munster pack were outfought for large periods of last Friday’s defeat. Archer pointed to Munster’s problems at the scrum and lineout as major contributing factors to the loss.

“Physically, Edinburgh took it to us and they did run over us. Edinburgh have a good pack but we pride ourselves on our set pieces and our physicality and it just wasn’t there last week. This week we will just try to rectify it and we have a good chance against Treviso because they are a physical team with a combative pack,” Archer said.

Munster have a good chance to make up the ground they lost last week in Treviso on Friday night. Treviso were soundly beaten away to the Ospreys in their opening game but Archer is acutely aware of the struggles Munster have had in this fixture in recent years.

“Over there, Italian sides are a different animal and they are about 20% better on their home patch than they are anywhere else. We will have our hands full on Friday night but we are looking forward to it.

“The last two years we haven’t got a result there but last year in particular was disappointing because we were up by seven points in the second half but in the end, discipline cost us. We had two late yellow cards and let them off the hook so we are looking forward to this Friday night and trying to get our first win of the season,” Archer said.

Given the late game disciplinary struggles Munster had in Italy last year, the importance of not giving away needless penalties has been stressed all week, as well as being clinical when opportunities are created.

“Discipline is a big part of our game. A big philosophy of ours when we go into matches is that we don’t get any yellow cards or give away stupid penalties. Especially in the redzone, when they are under pressure we have to keep it on them and not give away stupid penalties,” Archer said.

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