Dougall Not Resting On His Laurels

Despite an impressive display in his first competitive game for Munster Sean Dougall is taking nothing for granted ahead of the second round of RaboDirect PRO12 matches.

It wont be his first time he's stepped out in Thomond Park, “No, I’ve played an A game (for Ulster) there and played a 20s game there." but he wasn't taking anything for granted yesterday after training in Cork.

"If I am involved, it’ll obviously be the biggest game I’ve played there and of course it’s something I’m really looking forward to. They (Treviso) beat the holders last weekend and we'd be looking to step up on last weekend's performance."

Speaking of that win in Edinburgh in comparision to pre-season form he says. "It was good we had those games cause we kinda knew where we were at. We knew there were a couple of areas we had to work at for the Edinburgh game. And there were positives out of there."

"Obviously it’s early days and still things to work on but yes a good positive start and we hope we can step up a notch again on Friday night."

Perhaps one of the moments that defined the attitude of this squad and maybe determined the outcome was the period after Tim Vissr's try when Munster found themselves in a huddle under the posts awaiting Greig Laidlaw's conversion and a possible 14 point turaround.

What was said then, "Dougie and Donncha and the senior fellas like, were telling us not to panic. It was just one of those things. It wasn’t as if we’d gone through phases and made loads of mistakes. It was like a one off, turned the ball over and then they capitalised on it and they were very good at that. They had a lot of backs who used the space well."

"But from our point of view it was a case of re-grouping and starting off again."

Playing in the famous Murrayfield was a first for Dougall and an experience he enjoyed despite the emptiness of the vast stadium.

"Before the game – I’d never played there before – the lads were saying it’s a funny atmosphere because it’s a huge stadium and only one side of it’s filled. But I think they did something differently this year whereby they’d people each side of the pitch. It didn’t really cross my mind in the game. It was just a great pitch, didn’t have a negative effect at all."