Clayton McMillan says his played delivered on their promise to turn their meeting with Leinster into a "dogfight".
The province sent out an early-season warning to the rest of the BKT United Rugby Championship season with a 31-14 hammering of Leinster at Croke Park, emphatically ending a run of four defeats in a row in this fixture and maintaining their 100% record after four games.
While Munster outscored their hosts four tries to two, it was a belligerent defensive performance that laid the platform for their win, making 241 tackles in comparison to Leinster's 97, while they picked off 11 turnovers, five of which came from captain Tadhg Beirne.
"I thought it was outstanding," head coach McMillan said of his side's defence.
"You can look into the heart and soul of a team, I think, by the way that they're prepared to fight for each other and defend.
"Leinster are a quality side and they put us under a huge amount of pressure, they just keep standing up, and get over a couple of times, but even just the smarts to roll underneath and keep them off the ground. All of those little bits were very pleasing.
"The barometer or the line in the sand has been drawn now, and we have just got to keep fighting to be at that level.
"I thought we were pretty good across the board. We were under pressure early, particularly around our scrum, but we wanted to work hard for each other tonight. We wanted to win all the little moments and we did that."
It was the New Zealander's first taste of the Munster-Leinster rivalry, and he says there was a specific theme of the week.
"I just wanted to make it a dogfight. Leinster are just too good a side that if you sit and wait and sort of give them a moment to impose their game on you, then you're going to be losing.
"So we needed to be in the scrap for everything and want to be the hunter, not the hunted. So that's the basic gist of it."
The result came in spite of a perfect start for Leinster, who took a 7-0 lead in the opening minutes when Rónan Kelleher scored a try in the seventh minute.
The defending champions, who have now lost three of their first four games, had 11 newly minted British and Irish Lions in their matchday squad, but several of those players looked slow to the pace of the game.
"It's disappointing. It's disappointing for the fans who turn out to watch," Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said.
"I'm disappointed we didn't give a better account of ourselves for sure because we're down that end of the field. We're doing everything bar getting to that last one or two metres.
"How many times do we get held up, and then Munster take to the corner and they get in for that try, which looks relatively easy.
"We're in the position, sequences of probably 12 phases where you might have five to six carries that are similar to that, so if I'm looking back at the review, that's what I would be looking at, first and foremost.
"Why are these guys that bit hungrier than us? Some of that can be hard to put your finger on. It's making sure that we all try and own it."
While Leinster’s Lions rarely got going, Munster’s Lion was immense.
Beirne (below) marked his return with a forceful display, particularly when the game was still in the balance in the third quarter, while elsewhere Jack Crowley was the official man of the match – making a real statement about who should be starting for Ireland against the All Blacks.
And McMillan was full of praise for the pair.
"I thought he [Crowley] had a really good game. I've been impressed with Jack since he came back from the off-season, had a real focus about him. He's fit and he's just calm.
"I thought this week he started to inject his leadership and his voice a little bit more than what we've seen in previous weeks. So he was well aware of the occasion, he was up for it and I thought he did a magnificent job.
"This guy [Beirne] is probably the epitome of somebody who's got a high [ceiling] in terms of where he is in his performances. The roof is pretty high and you don't see too much of a dip in him.
"Our challenge as a team is to raise that floor so that the days between our bad performances and our good ones aren't so big.
"The last couple of weeks have been tough. We haven't been concerned looking at the points, the ladder and patting ourselves on the back.
"We wanted to be better in our performances, come off the field, look in the mirror and be proud of what we're producing. And today will be one of those days."
