Rougerie: we’ll play ‘head screwed on’ rugby at Thomond
It’s a strange assessment of a Heineken Cup performance in which the French dismantled Llanelli by 48-21, but the Clermont winger explained yesterday: “In terms of preparation, I think we’ll just take things slowly and keep calm about the whole thing as we definitely need to be a bit more level-headed and clinical.
“Because we lacked caution at times in the game against the Scarlets, particularly when we had stretched the lead, and they came right back at us and almost took a bonus point. Munster have a lot of very seasoned internationals and they will be quick to take any chances we give them through carelessness or lack of caution. I’m sure they’ll be looking at the match to pick out our weak points.
“We played Llanelli with our heads a bit in the clouds and that’s something we really can’t afford to do next Sunday. We will need to have our heads screwed on and our feet firmly on the ground,” Rougerie said.
“Having said that, we showed everybody that we’re here, that we are in the running for this pool and that we are contenders along with everybody else. Our lineout was very strong against Llanelli — we stole half a dozen balls, which was fantastic — but it’s certainly not something we can count on against Munster.
“We know they have very strong set pieces and we will have to be very clinical not to be punished in these areas. If we can play like we did against Llanelli, but iron out the silly errors and be a bit more clinical, I think we will be a really tough challenge for Munster.”
Rougerie’s team won the 2007 European Challenge Cup, finishing at the head of the Top 14 competition and reaching the 2007 French Championship final. Since then, they have been boosted by the signatures of players like South Africa’s World Cup-winning captain John Smit, Julien Bonnaire and Alex King.
“We had a great time on the pitch last weekend and, although we weren’t perfect, we played some great rugby and I’m proud of the whole team for that. However, we also realise that we need to look at the video, go through it and then correct the errors we made.”
Clermont’s emphatic 48-21 win followed London Wasps’ 24-23 thriller against Munster in the other Pool 5 contest on a weekend that saw 128,587 fans through the stiles, a tournament record for Round 1 matches.
“I think this pool is seeing some great rugby because everybody knows that to get out of this group and qualify for the quarter-finals is going to take something really special,” he said.
Two years ago, Munster lost 27-13 at Sale Sharks in Round 1 and promptly reeled off eight wins on the trot to be crowned kings of Europe.
Fast forward to 2007, and a one-point round one defeat at the hands of reigning champions Wasps in front of the biggest crowd of the weekend — 21,506 at the Ricoh Arena — and Munster will be hoping history can repeat itself.
Director of Rugby Declan Kidney admitted: “It was very disappointing to leave Coventry with only one point when there had been the real possibility of us taking four points. We will work on certain things and try and bring that into what is now a cup final situation for us from now on.
“However, even before the first lot of games, I said that whichever two teams got the wins on the first weekend would have the pressure taken off them and that there would be more pressure on the teams who lost — and we are one of them.
“On this occasion, we fell one point short and we have to accept that we were one of the teams who lost on the opening weekend.”
Kidney has conceded that it is “highly unlikely” that captain Paul O’Connell will make a match into which Munster’s opponents will enter in red-hot form.
“We will give him every chance but, as he has been unable to take part in training yet, it is highly unlikely Paul will be ready.”
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