Tom Farrell insists Munster are determined to put their Challenge Cup exit behind them and finish the season in style, starting with this Saturday away to Benetton.
The province have four games left in the URC regular-season as they look to secure a place in the play-offs, and with it Champions Cup qualification for next season.
Clayton McMillan's side are seventh in the table ahead of their trip to Italy, two points inside the top-eight, but just five back from the home quarter-final spots.
However, their form has spiralled since the Six Nations, with three defeats in a row in all competitions where they have conceded a combined 110 points, the most recent of which a 31-21 defeat Exeter Chiefs, where they were 31-0 down by half time.
Because of that defeat, they were the only Irish province not in action last weekend, which Farrell says did at least allow them to hit the rest button against their most crucial stretch of the year.
"There were a few honest meetings in the following week, on the Monday, and rolling into basically all of last week," the Ireland international said.
"We obviously had the week off, so we sat right down and we dissected our game, both attack and defence. Hopefully, this weekend, we'll see some improvements.
"The week off probably did us no harm. We actually took an extra day off because we got back late, so we had an extra day recovery.
"The bit of training probably did us no harm because we ironed out a few issues, both sides of the ball, that were hindering us. We got some good images from training and things we could really go after now for the next couple of weeks, so it was probably no harm for us."
The province have been down this before in recent seasons.
In 2023, they produced a late rally on tour in South Africa to scrape get into the play-offs and scrape Champions Cup qualification, before going on to win the championship in dramatic fashion, while last season they finished the campaign with back-to-back bonus-point wins to secure their top half place.
"We talked about it briefly this morning, how we have been in these situations before," Farrell added.
"We talked about last season again, going down to the last few games for us.
"Obviously it's not ideal, we don't want to be in that situation, but look, we've put ourselves here now and we've addressed it. We're looking to meet it head on and we've acknowledged the fact of where we are. So hopefully now, come Saturday, it will come right."
Their final four games are fraught with danger, with Ulster, Connacht and the Lions all in contention for the play-offs, and while this weekend’s opponents Benetton are probably out of the running in 12th place, the Italians have proven to be a difficult nut t crack for Munster in recent seasons.
Last season, the Italians gave them a real scare in Cork before Munster ground out a 30-21 win, while they drew 13-13 the previous year in Treviso.
In particular, Farrell knows he will have to be at his best to contain centre Tommaso Menoncello (above), the 2024 Six Nations Player of the Championship, who was also nominated for the award in 2025 and 2026.
"He's full package. We've seen it in the Six Nations there. Both attack and defence, he's pretty well rounded.
"Obviously, unbelievably strong through contact. So, he has that offloading game as well. So, we'll have to be kind of defending in twos and threes around that and not leave him kind of soft shoulders to allow them off the channels. "
"He's quite dangerous though," he added.
Follow our live blog on Ireland v Italy in the Women's Six Nations on Saturday from 5.40pm, and listen to live commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
