Munster head coach Graham Rowntree believes his side have what it takes to turn around their indifferent form, with the province set for an Investec Champions Cup rematch with Northampton Saints in April.
After a disappointing pool campaign in which they won just one game from four, Munster will face a last-16 trip to the Saints, whom they lost 26-23 to on Saturday at Thomond Park.
Their defeat continued a worrying trend that's emerged this season, in which they've consistently struggled with game management in adverse weather conditions, letting a 20-10 lead slip against Northampton, who had been playing with 14 men for the entire second half.
But the Munster coach remains adamant that his side can turn things around when they get a shot at revenge against the Premiership leaders in the next round.
"Yes, actually we do [believe]. We've proven that," he said, after the loss on Saturday.
"We’re going to lick our wounds tonight, look at it in the cold light of day. Kicking the ball off at the end there, we need to keep the ball on the field.
"We just kept giving them more lineouts to kill the game, moments like that, we’ve got to look at that. Get better."
While they have a four-week layoff until their next competitive game in the URC, Munster will get a chance to shake off the frustration of that defeat when they host Crusaders in an exhibition game at a sold-out Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday, 3 February, while there will also be a friendly away to Harlequins late in February as they look to stay sharp during the Six Nations break.
"Hugely frustrating so far as this is the last time that group is going to be together for a while. We've got guys going away on international duty. We’ve got a huge game for the club in Páirc Uí Chaoimh against the Crusaders soon enough, then we’re into the URC.
"There’s a lot of rugby coming up but we’ll be split. Guys will be away on international duty, it’s unfortunate that last performance will be the last time we’ll be together for a while.
"We’re going to look at it in the cold light of day. We’ve got to be better than some of the stuff we were doing. We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to be better than that.
"Credit to them [Northampton], by the way. They grew another leg in that last third of the game, some big moments around ruck when we were a bit naïve, a bit slow at the breakdown and Courtney [Lawes] is in over the ball. We got penalised for not releasing, moments like that, credit to them."
One of the most frustrating elements of the defeat was how Munster looked to have turned a corner with their bonus-point win away to Toulon in France in Round 3.
And Rowntree admits that the inconsistency is "massively" frustrating.
"Look where we were last week, in Toulon, savouring a fantastic victory, probably one of our most famous victories ever and we come here at home, it wasn't going to just happen. I was at pains to say it wasn’t going to just happen.
"We’ll look at how we can manage the game better in those conditions with what we had on the field. That’s all we can do.
"I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater, we’ve done a body a great work this season, got some great men coming through.
"We’re going to lose some guys, there’s a group of players going to have play in the URC again, play against Crusaders, Quins away. We’ll look at that group of players, then we’ll come back together end of March, April and a Round of 16 game. We knew we were going to have to go somewhere."
