Munster forwards coach Andi Kyriacou says there are "heaps" of positives they can take despite their Round 1 defeat to Cardiff in the BKT United Rugby Championship.
The province opened up their campaign with a 20-13 defeat to the Welsh side on Saturday, having been outscored by three tries to one.
It was the first competitive game under the new coaching team of Graham Rowntree, Mike Prendergast, Denis Leamy and Kyriacou, with a largely second-string side outscored by three tries to one.
In recent weeks, the coaching team have stressed the rebuild will take some time, while that was echoed by Bernard Jackman last night on RTÉ's Against the Head.
However, forwards coach Kyriacou maintains a lot of last week's errors at the Arms Park were individual mistakes which can be quickly ironed out, ahead of Sunday's return to Wales when they take on Dragons.
Munster forwards coach Andi Kyriacou insists the province will get better as they aim to bounce back from an opening-round defeat in Cardiff against another Welsh outfit, Dragons, on Sunday #URC pic.twitter.com/UihK10NTmG
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) September 20, 2022
"The breakdown stuff, we can immediately address, as we were challenged well by Cardiff there," the Englishman said.
"But some of the pattern work, we're seeing massive improvements through the summer in pre-season games and into Round 1.
"There are big improvements within those three games. What we expect is to keep improving and it's always going to be a long-term thing, that we keep pushing ourselves on and testing each other."
"The way we're training is designed to stress the players, so it will inevitably take time and we should see improved performances as we move through.
"We understand as a group that there are areas individually we all need to work on and sharpen up on. That'll come the more we play together. We'll get our timings together and we'll get that feel of what players will do instinctively as well, and how we can support that. That'll definitely add to more accuracy around our catch-ass.
"In terms of the team, it's going to take some time for us to bed these things in, and the great thing about it is we have a good nice long week to put right some of them things, work on it, keep improving, so our performance keeps improving at the weekend."
The province will have to do without 10 players this weekend who will be involved in the Emerging Ireland camp ahead of the tour of South Africa, among them first team regulars Shane Daly, Josh Wycherley, Alex Kendellen, Tom Ahern and John Hodnett.
However, they will be able to call on all their frontline internationals for the first time this season, excluding Gavin Coombes and Andrew Conway who are still recovering from injuries.
Stephen Archer will also return having missed last week's defeat in Cardiff due to a a thigh injury, while Mike Haley and Simon Zebo will be monitored during the week as they make their way back from knocks.
Follow the 2022/23 BKT United Rugby Championship across RTÉ radio, TV, RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Watch live coverage of Stormers v Connacht (24 September) and Dragons v Munster (25 September) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
