‘I’ll strive to leave a bit of myself behind with Munster’

IF anything is likely to put a Munster player in bad humour it’s defeat to Leinster. It’s fair to assume, then, that a 30-0 loss in the RDS with a man sent off is likely to conjure up a pretty black cloud of crankiness over training the following week.

Ask Doug Howlett if the sessions, ahead of their opening Heineken Cup fixture against Northampton, have had what is euphemistically described as an edge, and the answer is unequivocal.

“Yeah, it has. There weren’t many positives to take out of a game like that, but we put our heads down and got to work, concentrating on a good performance against Northampton. That’s a challenge in itself.”