Munster’s Rory Scannell insists that his side will be ignoring all outside distractions this weekend as they take on Exeter in their final Heineken Champions Cup group game.
Scannell’s side welcome Exeter to Thomond Park with top spot in Pool 2 still up for grabs.
Munster hold a four-point lead over the visitors, who have fought their way back into the reckoning with two back-to-back bonus-point wins in their last two games.
With such a commanding lead at the top of the pool and the advantage of a sold-out Thomond Park behind them, there have been suggestions that Munster could turn their attention to ensuring they claim a bonus-point win to give themselves a chance of a home quarter-final.
However, Scannell is not looking beyond Saturday’s game and claims that his side can’t afford to start worrying about permutations or results elsewhere.
"We just need to win to top the group, that’s the way we’re looking at it," he told RTÉ Sport.
"If in the last few minutes there is an opportunity to get a bonus-point win, we’ll be going for that but it’s not something we’re looking at that at the moment.
"Anything that happens outside of that, there’ll be other results that go in favour or go against us, but we’ve not control over that so for us, we’re just looking at Saturday and we’re just hopefully looking to get a win.
"When we saw the groups we knew it was going to be a tough task as we’re in a good position now, with Exeter in a straight shoot-out to see who would top the group.
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"They’re probably in a position they didn’t think they’d be in after the first three rounds. They’ve got a maximum ten points in their last two games so it’s going to be a tough game on Saturday."
As well as having a firing Munster side to cope with, Exeter face the prospect of stepping out onto the pitch at a sold out Thomond Park.
Much has been made of the advantage that Munster’s home support offer them over the years, but while Scannell admits that his side feed off the emotional intensity of the crowd, he believes that only counts for so much.
"We’ll be up for it emotionally but that will only last so long into the game, after that it comes down to how we play the game, how we execute our game plan," he said.
"They’ll be looking it from the point of view that if they can weather that emotional energy at the start of the game and are still in the mix after that, they’ll probably believe they can go on and get a win.
"It’ll be great to have a full Thomond Park there shouting for us on Saturday but it’s up to us then, we have to execute our game plan and put ourselves in a position to get a win."
Follow Munster v Exeter (kick-off 5.30pm, Saturday) via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the News Now app or listen to live national radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
