A backs-to-the-wall week for Munster. Denis Leamy has experienced his fair share of them.
After Sunday's defeat to Toulouse at Thomond Park, they travel to Northampton this weekend needing to pull a result out of the bag to get back on track in the Heineken Champions Cup.
Getting back on track has been a running theme this season.
"It's kind of felt like that for, I suppose, the last three or four months to be honest with you," says Leamy, about the pressure surrounding this Sunday's game.
He admits there's plenty of pressure. That's just Munster.
"It's always been like that. It was always backs against the wall, proper pressure applied from in-house for these big European days.
"Every time you go out and represent Munster, it's a big day. And there is always that pressure. That pressure, and it's a good pressure may I add, coming from the fans and from in-house as well.
"There is always that pressure to go and deliver a performance, and it's about performance. It really is. It's about us getting the process right, we have started the week well now, in terms of day-to-day building into that big game on Sunday.
"We need to deliver individual performances feeding into the collective. Look, we take confidence. We are really looking forward to this game. It's another great challenge for us. It's a big game and we wouldn't want it any other way."
Munster and Northampton had a ding-dong rivalry back in Leamy's playing day. The seed had been planted at Twickenham in 2000, when the Saints edged past Declan Kidney's side in the province's first final appearance, but it blossomed between 2010 and 2012, when they drew each other twice in three seasons in the pools, as well as meeting at Thomond Park in a quarter-final in 2011.
Leamy even played a famous role in the most famous of those games, providing the final pass for Ronan O'Gara to land that match-winning drop goal at Thomond Park in November 2011.
This week's renewal, their first meeting or 11 years, doesn't grab the attention quite like those five games between 2010 and 2012, but it's no less important. Both sides were beaten in the opening round, Munster at least securing a bonus-point in their defeat to Toulouse, but the Saints were hammered 46-12 by the defending champions La Rochelle.
In spite of that, Leamy says the English side's attack is capable of trouble.
"They're really quick and their ability to play on the gainline, they get guys running lines early, they hit the ball at a lot of pace and they've obviously got guys like [Lewis] Ludlum and [Juarno] Augustus, these types of players who are very powerful.
"Then you have the likes of [Alex] Mitchell, excellent around the ruck. They have loads of ability, right throughout the team there's no doubt about it. Someone said to me they're the best in attack, certainly around the gainline, in the Premiership and that heightens your sense of alert around the game straight away.
"It's going to be very interesting around collisions, how we can slow up their ruck ball, how we can get ourselves set to really impose our defensive line speed on them."
And while Leamy is tasked with stopping those Northampton threats, he says the task will be made easier if they can continue their encouraging attacking form.
"Without stating the obvious, attack is the best form of defence so the longer you keep the ball the better chance you have. Now we're really starting to see exciting things in our attack, the boys have worked incredibly hard, it's a pretty new gameplan to them in terms of what they were used to but just the learnings week on week, the ability to start to play quicker, the ability to get the ball through their hands under pressure.
"We'll go there to attack. We were chasing the game the other day against Toulouse but we tried to keep ball in hand, tried to play a fast game, we were putting phase after phase after phase together. The phases leading up to the last penalty, it was like 15 or 16 phases keeping the ball in a freezing fog. The boys' hands must have been falling off, like.
"It's not easy but we have the ability to do it. We're really trusting our attack and our ability to put the ball through the phases and play at a high tempo".
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