Scrumhalf Conor Murray has said Munster need to be smarter if they are to make amends for last weekend’s Champions Cup loss when they travel to Clermont on Sunday.
Munster failed to make much impact on the Clermont defence in last Saturday’s 16-9 defeat, and were out-muscled by the French side, who put in an aggressive performance, repelling Anthony Foley’s men time and again.
Reflecting on the game, Murray told RTÉ Sport that Clermont had appeared to anticipate Munster’s gameplan, but that it was important to take some positives from the game.
Murray said Munster had not been surprised by Clermont’s aggressive, physical approach, but said that “we probably didn’t play as smartly as we could have. They seemed to know where the ball was going and lined us up in certain areas.
“Having said that, we dug in there, we stayed in the game until the very end, and had an opportunity to maybe level the game, or at least score a try, in the corner in the dying moments.
“So, we have got to take positives from that game. We didn’t perform as we would have liked but we were still within one score of really good team. But this week is completely different: we need to attack this, rather than [just] go out there and hope to win.”
"They seemed to know where the ball was going and lined us up in certain areas" - Conor Murray
Murray said that it was a positive to have the opportunity to right the wrongs of last weekend almost immediately, given the home and away nature of rounds three and four of the pool stages.
“Usually when you lose to a team, or don’t perform against a team, a big team, you might not get to play them again until the second half of the season or a year or two’s time,” he said.
“This is a unique way of getting back on the horse straight away, putting a performance together against the team that managed to beat you last week. We talk about it being half-time at the moment, and that’s what it is for us.”
He said that he was disappointed that Munster had not performed in the game last weekend, “especially the way we let them into the game so early and gave them that buffer to relax upon.
“But we had to shake that off quite quickly with the task that is ahead, this weekend, down in Clermont. It has been done down there, other people have won recently.
“We’re aware that we need to perform really, really well, [and] fix a lot of the mistakes we made last week. We can’t afford to make them this week, because they’ll be a different animal at home again.
“We’re just really [focusing] on putting a performance together ourselves, and just playing as well we can, because as good as Clermont were at the weekend and are going to be this weekend, we’re kind of focusing on ourselves.
"We let ourselves down a little bit at the weekend, by not performing ... at the standards we have been doing this year.”
