Munster's Calvin Nash says they will not be using the heat and altitude of the Highveld as an excuse for their first-half performance in Saturday's 29-24 defeat to the Bulls in Pretoria.
Johann van Graan's side produced a stirring second-half comeback to claim a losing bonus point in their first United Rugby Championship visit to Loftus Versfeld.
However, they looked miles off the pace in the opening half as they conceded two tries and multiple scoring penalties, trailing 29-3 in the early stages of the second half.
And while they were dealing with temperatures pushing 30C, and altitude of 1,350m in Pretoria, wing Calvin Nash says they should never have allowed the Bulls to build such a lead, admitting the hosts caught them "by surprise".
"It was tough, we had obviously been training during the week and got a good burn in the lungs," the 24-year-old said, ahead of this Saturday's visit to the Lions in Johannesburg.
"That helped a good bit, but I think we were very disappointed with our first half. The Bulls caught us by surprise, they were very dominant and we didn't front up as well as we wanted to.
"The heat and altitude obviously was still a shock, you can't train for how a game will be, but we were disappointed with the first half, very disappointed."
Surprisingly, it was Munster who grew stronger as the game progressed, with tries for Alex Kendellen, Damian de Allende and Jack O'Donoghue clawing them back within one score, and securing a losing bonus point.
And while Nash (above) says they take pride in their fightback, he admits their first-half display was not acceptable.
"I think it was that we became more dominant, the coaches' messages were fairly clear and we were all pretty much in-sync, and we knew we just needed to put in a massive shift," he added.
"Munster, as a club, has great pride in the performances it makes, and that first half wasn’t a Munster performance.
"We really needed to dig deep and do something in the second half to make the fans proud, and make ourselves proud as well.
"It should stand to us this week, having a week’s training and that game behind us, that game was easily one of the toughest games I’ve played.
"I found it very difficult in the last few minutes to find energy to keep going. Today, we had our training and we have training later on, and I felt very good this morning, and very good yesterday. Hopefully it’ll be a lot easier this week."
Conditions are expected to be a little bit more favourable this Saturday against the Lions at Ellis Park (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), with temperatures forecast to be a more manageable 20C, although they will still have to deal with Johannesburg altitude.
"The players have had the week of it now, and you could see today at training they are straight in, they're so much better, and that’s what a week does at altitude," said defence coach JP Ferreira (below).
"It doesn't take too long to get it, to get that training, but once you know you’re used to it, it should be a cracker on Saturday."
Saturday's game will see Ferreira return to his old ground, having spent 10 years coaching with the Lions prior to his move to Munster in 2017.
And while the former Super Rugby finalists have struggled in their debut URC season, they have looked improved in recent weeks, putting in an admirable display against Leinster, before seeing off the Scarlets last weekend.
"They want to speed up the game, they want to make it quick, use their guys on the edges to give them momentum and gainline.
"It's going to be an interesting one, especially because we’ve had a week at altitude, I don't expect us to have a slow start like we had at the weekend," he added.
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Watch live coverage of Lions v Munster (12pm), Wales v Italy (2.15pm) and France v England (8pm) this Saturday, 19 March on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
