Gaffney detects rustiness

MUNSTER coach Alan Gaffney declared himself happy with his side’s Heineken Cup performance in Musgrave Park last night but said it was still some way off the levels of play he expected from his players.

Despite the crushing victory over the pool two whipping boys, the Australian detected signs of rustiness in a side still finding its feet again after the autumn series of internationals severely curtailed his work at provincial level.

Gaffney said: “I’m pretty happy with the performance. I’ve got to be very happy with the set pieces; the lineouts were very good and the mauling was very strong.

“But I think there are still areas that we’re a little rusty in.

“We had a lot of opportunities out wide tonight which we didn’t take and though they played well individually there were certain parts of the structure and the patterns of play that we need to work on.”

Gaffney added that his considerable international contingent were having to readapt to the Munster way after their extended spell in Eddie O’Sullivan’s Irish squad.

“It’s not ideal but we’ve only been back together a little while, a couple of weeks or so and it’s always going to take time.

“They’re running different patterns with national team and then they come back again and it must get a bit confusing.

“That’s not blaming the boys, the whole team are together on this. It’s like a building process with them, we’re building with every week and trying to improve and improve and improve.”

That step up in performance will be expected to be turned in next weekend when Munster travel to Italy for the return pool two fixture with Viadana.

“Next week we’re going to look for a bigger improvement again,” Gaffney said. “Irrespective of being away from home I’m looking for another step up from the boys.

“Viadana are very big, physical side and they have avery big forward pack who are prepared to chance their arm but I think our pack tonight were very, very good.

“They were technically very good in all the set pieces and dominated throughout. That’s very handy for us and I think Anthony Foley was absolutely outstanding for the 60-odd minutes he was on.

“Never mind the two tries he scored, I thought a lot of things that Anthony Foley did tonight were absolutely wonderful.

“Bringing him off the field after 60 minutes was actually more of a reward than being worried about the way he was playing.”