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Everything Clicked Says Cronin

6th October 2014 By Munster Rugby

Everything Clicked Says Cronin

James Cronin reflects on Saturday night’s Guinness PRO12 win over Leinster in which he scored Munster’s opening try. The loosehead also looks ahead to this Friday’s Round 6 clash with Scarlets at Thomond Park.

James was understandably very happy get the 23-34 win at the AVIVA Stadium – a ground which has not proved fruitful for Munster in recent years. In fact, Saturday saw Munster record their first win in Dublin since 2008.

“It was great to get a performance like that under our belt. I think everything clicked for us in the first half, each man had his own job to do and every man stood up on the night. There was a great level of intensity to our game and the work rate was good across the park so thankfully it worked out for us.

“The week before (against Ospreys) we hadn’t put in the performance we wanted to but we still had an opportunity to win the game at the end so we knew we weren’t that far off the mark. The difference on Saturday was that we made better decisions and were more clinical when it mattered most.

“It was great to get the four points and having not won up there in so long – that made it all the more enjoyable.”

Known for his dynamism and powerful ball carrying abilities on the pitch, James has become even more of a juggernaut in attack, and it was more a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ he’d cross the try line for Munster this season. Good phase play saw Munster make good ground on the Leinster defence with James coming at speed to take the final pass from Conor Murray and touch down at full stretch despite the efforts of three Leinster defenders.

“It’s always good getting on the scoreboard but that’s just part and parcel of it – I like getting my hands on the ball, throwing it around and carrying it. The other lads put in a serious effort along the way to get us into that position and it was great to be on the receiving end of the final pass.”

One blot in Munster’s copybook on the night was four Munster players seeing yellow in the second half, something which James says will be addressed swiftly.

“Of course getting four yellow cards isn’t ideal. We’ve got a good defence and we back our decisions at ruck time, but last Saturday that let us down in the second half and we were punished for it. Nobody goes out with the intention of getting a yellow card but sometimes a guy can get carried away in the heat of the moment. Discipline is massive for us and at reviews today we’ll be shown our mistakes and told what not to do – we’ll learn from those incidents. After that it’s up to us as players to go out and not repeat the same mistakes again.”

With the first interprovincial of the season completed, the focus in the Munster camp now switches firmly to Scarlets at Thomond Park on Friday night.

“This Friday is going to be massive for us. Having lost two home games already we know we owe the Thomond Park crowd a big performance. We’ll also need a performance when taking on the likes of Scarlets who are a very good side. We’ll come with everything we came with against Leinster – the same preparation and the same physicality.”

Munster v Scarlets, Guinness PRO12 Round 6, Friday October 10th at Thomond Park. KO 19:35.

Tickets from €;20 for adults and €;40 for families can be purchased online here.

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