THIS TIME LAST month Munster’s opening Champions Cup clash against high-flying Toulouse had a daunting look to it.

The province were struggling to build any momentum under new head coach Graham Rowntree, with their performances disjointed and their position in the URC table troubling.

Yet the last couple of weeks have lifted the mood around the place. A memorable win against South Africa A in Cork during the November international window breathed new life into the squad and they’ve built on that with important URC wins against Connacht and Edinburgh.

On the back of those positive steps, the visit of the French giants to Thomond Park on Sunday is being viewed as a challenge to relish. Nothing motivates a Munster squad like European cup rugby.

“The weeks are quite exciting in terms of that, we’re into pretty much knockout rugby when it comes to Champions Cup; you can’t really afford to lose games and you want to have the home last 16, home quarters,” says Tadhg Beirne.

“If we’re being honest, those first two URCs after the break were essentially knockout games for us.

We said that we didn’t talk about the table, but we more or less said that if we don’t win these games we’re pretty much in a lot of trouble. We turned out these performances with our backs against the wall and it’s no different this weekend.

“I’m guessing we’re not favourites, but we’ll certainly relish it. Especially at home in Thomond.

“Especially at a club like Munster, there’s a special feeling around Europe in this club. Whether we mean to or not, the mood lifts when it comes into European Cup weeks. It’s no different this week.”

These two sides are no strangers of course, Toulouse beating Munster on penalties in an epic quarter-final meeting at Aviva Stadium last May. The two teams have met eight times in total, with Munster winning on four occasions.

“I suppose the only thing we’d look back on is how we lost those games (last season), to learn from them,” Beirne continues.

“We’re not really using it as motivation, it’s a new squad this time, new coaching staff, so we’re just worrying about ourselves, and it’s our first (Champions Cup) game with the new coaching staff. We’re just looking forward to having a crack off Toulouse at Thomond Park.

I think we can put it up to anyone if we play well enough on the day. It’s going to be no different to Toulouse, they have a lot of new players as well compared to the last two seasons. In fairness, they’re probably stronger than they were last season, top of the Top14 at the moment, and they look very strong again.

“I think we’re very confident the way we’ve been going the last few weeks, we’ve certainly been getting better as the weeks have been going, and we plan to improve again this week. We look to ourselves defensively, and that’s an area we’ve leaked a few tries in the last few weeks. I don’t think you can give Toulouse the easy access we’ve been giving teams, through tries or penalties, that’s probably the main area we’ve focused on.”

Toulouse are already being marked as one of the early favourites to win the tournament, which ends with a Dublin final on 20 May.

“They’re a bit of everything, physical, set-piece wise they’re strong in the scrum, and they have individual talent, they’re easy on the eye as a spectator, that’s for sure.

“Off loose ball they can turn it into a try out of nothing, you just don’t have a second on the field to switch off on the pitch, you just have to be on at every moment. You will be punished if you do have those moments where you just knock off for a split second. That’s what you can’t do against a side like this.” 

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