Munster's Croke Park display defended as Graham Rowntree looks forward to South Africa tests

Munster Rugby boss Graham Rowntree hoping for good news on the injury front after Leinster defeat as he welcomes back a number of players for the southern hemisphere URC jaunt

Graham Rowntree says Munster must "roll with the punches" after shipping more physical and psychological blows at Croke Park to add to a very mixed start to the season.

The Reds edged a 10-try thriller against Connacht on the opening day, then suffered a shock first-ever defeat to Zebre before impressively nilling Ospreys, all leading up to Saturday's comprehensive beating by Leinster.

Rowntree put the 26-12 reversal down to a lack of accuracy. "We spoke about that in the dressing-room afterwards," the head coach said. "We know how to beat this team. It wasn’t a lack of effort.

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"It’s the moments when no-one goes up (at the line-out) or we don’t attend a breakdown when we should be or there's a poor pass. They’re the things we need to iron out. That’s all we can get on with.

"We came here to play, we fired shots, we let ourselves down on occasion with our accuracy but I thought we did the occasion justice. We were ready for this game.

“It was a special occasion. I’m not sure any of those lads will have played a club game in front of that amount of people before. It’s an incredible stadium.

"I’ve been around the world in stadiums, I’ve not been to this one before. Wow! Wow! It’s a shame we’re not leaving here with a ‘W’. I’ve never shied away from poor performances or lack of effort. Tonight for me, there wasn’t a lack of effort, it was accuracy. We’ll drive on."

And the antidote to their ills? “Training," he stated. "Address it, own it, train it. Train under pressure. The same with every rugby team on the planet.

"You’re constantly trying to get better, working on your mistakes, working on your accuracy, accuracy under pressure against a very strong defence, for example. Their line speed. That's all we can do."

Rowntree has been dealing with an extensive casualty list and, with a trip to South Africa to come today, is dealing with more issues in the Croke Park fall-out.

He was hopeful on Saturday night that a number of front row players that were in the wars will travel. Both matchday hookers, starter Niall Scannell and his replacement Diarmuid Barron, went off for HIA assessments, as did replacement prop John Ryan.

Another prop, Jeremy Loughman, left the field with a badly cut cheek and a massive shiner under his right eye.

"We'll see how they are but there’s no grave concerns at the moment," insisted Rowntree, who earlier spoke of Leinster taking advantage of the 'chaos' in Munster's ranks in the opening 20 minutes as injuries took a toll.

“You’ve got to roll with the punches. We’re used to that. Lads come off when their mouthguard sensor gets pinged, I can’t change that. You’ve got to deal with that and it’s right that we’re looking after our players like that.

“But there was a point in the first half where I had to run down to the side of the field to help manage substitutions because we’d lost two hookers in a matter of minutes, that’s a new one, and Jeremy’s walking off as well.

“We need to look after the players. I agree with it. The idea of these mouthguards with the sensors, it’s a sound idea. I’m very confident with all the HIA return to play protocols.

“There was a huge amount today. That’s how the game is but we’ll manage that. It’s on us as coaches, as provinces, as clubs to get on with it, manage it, deal with it."

Billy Burns, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly and Paddy Patterson have recovered from injuries that kept them out in recent weeks and will be available against the Stormers and the Sharks.

The province's Emerging Ireland players - including that squad's captain, Alex Kendellen - are also available. Tom Ahern also returned from injury off the bench on Saturday.

“It’s been a productive area for us the last couple of seasons, has Cape Town," said Rowntree. "There’s a hotel there we use and we’ll be flying up to Durban the night before the game. We know the facilities, we get away as players and as coaches and we get on with it.

"The Stormers are travelling as well. We’ve got huge games now and I’m a strong believer that if you’re going to advance in this competition, what you do in South Africa is huge in terms of what you can acquire, points-wise.”

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