Munster assistant Denis Leamy says he's in agreement with Donncha O’Callaghan’s scathing assessment of the province’s recent defeat to Zebre.
Graham Rowntree’s side were beaten 42-33 in Parma on Saturday, giving up a 13-point half-time lead before losing their first ever game to the Italians, who finished bottom of the table last season.
Speaking on RTÉ Sport following Saturday’s game, former Munster second row O’Callaghan said the team "should be embarrassed" by what he described as a "completely unacceptable" performance and result.
Munster defence coach Leamy played alongside O’Callaghan for both the province and Ireland, with the pair winning two Champions Cup titles and a Six Nations Grand Slam together, and he says his former team-mate was "on the money" with his analysis of the game.
"I saw Donncha's comments. Someone said that he'd had a go and I specifically went home and watched it," the Munster assistant said on Tuesday.
"Donncha was completely on the money. I know Donncha since I was 18. I've nothing but respect for him. He was like a brother to me when we played together. Donncha O'Callaghan said nothing that we don't know, that the players don't know, that we didn't feel.
"Does it hurt? I think the hurt comes from how we were on Saturday. We want to remember the legacy that people like Donncha created here and we want to build on that. And when someone like Donncha honestly calls out our actions at the weekend, you put your hands up and you say, 'we have to do better, it wasn't good enough'.
"We're not going to step away from that, either. Donncha O'Callaghan will always be a legend here and he said nothing on Saturday that we didn't say ourselves."
It’s been a chastening start for Munster’s defence during the opening rounds of the BKT United Rugby Championship.
While only Connacht have scored more than Munster’s 68 points in the first two games, the 75 points given up already is ten more than any other side, while their tryline has already been breached 11 times.
Those numbers are in stark contrast to last season, when Munster’s miserly defence allowed an average of just 17 points per game across the 18 regular season matches.
And defence coach Leamy (below) admits their aggression in defence has to improve.
"It’s definitely been a difficult couple of weeks. The last couple of days have been very disappointing in terms of how we played, so absolutely, 100%, we need to be a lot better.
"Standing in front of the lads this morning, the disappointment on their faces was very palpable there. You got a sense of how much they care and that’s a great thing as a coach. You are looking for their reaction, you are watching their body language and their disappointment is definitely evident.
"The big thing now is energising again. We’ll lean on stuff around being the top defensive team for the last two seasons in the URC. You lean on little bits and pieces like that. But the reality is within the room there is a standard we expect and we didn’t meet it on Saturday.
"We’re conscious that the tries came from different aspects of our play so I think we need to tighten up right around the pitch, we need to tighten up when teams launch against us, we need to tighten up how we control the kicking game if we are going to go off, if we are going to stay on and stick to the plan and then, honestly, we need to present a huge amount more physicality, and that, in terms of Saturday, was for me quite disappointing. Our physical exchanges just weren’t good enough."
Frustratingly, injuries are starting to add up, with Thaakir Abrahams (leg) and Shane Daly (elbow) set for scans this week, and both are ruled out of Saturday’s meeting with the Ospreys in Cork, as are Ruadhan Quinn and Liam Coombes.
Jack Crowley and Tadhg Beirne (above) are set to make their first appearances of the season this weekend, but Billy Burns remains sidelined with a shoulder issue, while Alex Nankivell's status is unclear after he missed the defeat to Zebre with a knock.
Leamy is hopeful the province can welcome Tom Ahern back to action in the coming weeks.
The versatile forward suffered an ankle injury in the final round of the URC regular season which required surgery over the summer. It had been hoped that the Waterford man would be fit for the start of the season, but Leamy confirmed his return has been put on hold.
"Unfortunately, I think Tom’s rehab and recovery slowed a little bit.
"I'm not quite sure he had a 'setback’, but it just slowed down a little bit, and we're still waiting on him to be fully available.
"So we’re just watching that space, but fingers crossed it’ll be soon," he added.
Watch a URC double-header, Benetton v Leinster and Munster v Ospreys, on Saturday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
