Diarmuid Barron says Munster can't afford to dwell on their Champions Cup exit with Dragons on the horizon.
Clayton McMillan's side crashed out of the premier European competition after a sensational 31-29 loss to Castres at Thomond Park last weekend.
The defeat and subsequent failure to reach the knockout rounds for the first time since 2020 sent shockwaves around the province with a lot of soul-searching needed to assess where they are.
After starting the United Rugby Championship with five wins on the bounce, Munster have lost three of their last four in the league and sit in sixth place ahead of Friday night's visit of the Welsh region to Virgin Media Park.
"Look, it's incredibly disappointing," the 27-year-old hooker, whose side will be away to Exeter in the Challenge Cup round of 16, said.
"It's not where we wanted to be in terms of the Champions Cup, but we're in a different competition this weekend and we've got to make the best of it.
"[The Challenge Cup is] coming in April and that's a bit down the track and we've a bit of stuff to sort out amongst ourselves first before any of that.
"We have the Dragons this weekend and they're on a bit of a vein of form so we've got to be right on it there."
Dragons won just once in the league last season but already have two victories and two draws to their name.
They were also desperately unlucky not to get anything from their 24-10 defeat to Leinster in round six.
Filo Tiatia's side are in 13th place.
Barron added: "The beauty of this sport and what we do is that you get to try and put things right the next week.
"We have an opportunity this week to go hammer and thongs at it and put out a better performance."
Munster have little history in the Europe's secondary competition but reached the semi-final back in 2011 after dropping down from the Heineken Cup.
Barron, who has 96 Munster appearances to his name, says when the time comes they'll be ready for the fight in a tournament, won by Leinster in 2013, that includes Ulster and Connacht.
"Yeah, absolutely, you can see from the last couple of years, the likes of [2025 winners and later Premiership winners] Bath, I'm sure they gained a huge amount of confidence from what they did in it.
"There's some really quality teams in that. You look at the likes of [Ronan O'Gara's] La Rochelle, just to name one, Exeter, obviously.
"There's some top quality teams there and it's going to be a tough competition to be a part of, one that's really competitive."
One of the more positive aspects to Munster's season has been the return to fitness and form of forwards Edwin Edogbo (above) and Brian Gleeson, both of whom will hope to be included in Andy Farrell's Six Nations squad when named this afternoon.
Twenty-three year-old Edogbo, scorer of two tries against Castres, and 21-year-old back row Gleeson, who signed a two-year deal with the province yesterday, both came off the bench and made big impacts against the Top 14 side.
"There's loads of talent coming through and the likes of Edwin and Brian and a few others are a shining light of that," said Barron.
"There is positives to be taken from the last few weeks as gutting as the weekend was, we can be a bit doom and gloom in Ireland with things and think they're worse than they are at times.
"There is stuff definitely to be taken and to take confidence from.
"Edwin was fantastic at the weekend when he came on.
"There's heaps more good that was there, but unfortunately it just wasn't enough at the weekend.
"[Edwin] can get loads better and that's great because it'll be in his hands.
"I think his profile, his ability to get over the gain line, his ability to hit people, even in terms of scrum and maul, it's great to have him behind you or in front of you in terms of the maul.
"He has a massive ceiling obviously. It's exciting as to what he can do and where he can go."
