Focus Is On Performance

If there was one theme running through interviews with Munster players this week it was the importance of performance other than anything else. There wasn’t the slighest hint of complacency over the Italians with their performance against Perpignan acting as a timely reminder.

“We have to get a win this weekend it’s as simple as that”, says Tony McGahan, “There’s nothing for us to hold back or hide from. This week is purely about a result. It not a case of wanting to, we have to. You must win your home games.”

“We feel things are coming right, we’re gradually getting better and that is a natural progression as players come back in. We feel that the way we’ve trained well this week we feel there is a performance in us and we hope to bring that out on Saturday.”

“On the evidence of what I’ve seen so far Treviso look to be a very well organised side. Very hard to break down. Against Perpignan they played a very controlled game. Played field position very well, defended superbly and they’ll come here looking for a result, of that there is no doubt.”

For Alan Quinlan playing in his 178th competitive game for Munster it’s a question of, “cutting out the silly errors we’ve been making and focussing on our performance, getting back to the way we know we can play.

“Probably the best thing that could have happened was seeing the way they (Treviso) handled Perpignan because we certainly won’t underestimate them that’s for sure. And I think the press and the general public wont either and thats something that is important too from our oint of view.

“Look we know ourselves we’ve haven’t been firing but there’s a good work ethic within the group and coming off two defeats in a row we really know we have to deliver a performance on Saturday. It wont be for the lack of hard work at training, hard work in the gym,the hard working coaches we have.

“There have been disruptions with players coming back into the squad and injuries. We’re not making excuses. We have to cope with these things. But its time to deliver now and hopefully we’ll be more like our old selves.

“I think we have been improving each game. Certainly last week’s was an improvement on the Leinster one and if we’d cut out a few basic errors and not just the ones each side of half time it would have been a different story.

So thats what we’re aiming for” Quinlan concludes, ” a more intensive, maybe more patient approach, cut down the error count and see where that takes us.”