McGahan upbeat despite front-row crisis

MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan had little time to savour Saturday’s win over Treviso which sent his side to the top of Heineken Cup Pool One.

Instead he faced a front-row crisis after props Marcus Horan and Tony Buckley went off injured, meaning more headaches for McGahan who is already without John Hayes (suspended) and hooker Jerry Flannery (calf muscle tear).

Furthermore Doug Howlett had to depart due to a hamstring strain sustained as he rushed back to avert a dangerous situation after 35 minutes. The extent of that problem will be known later today.

Otherwise, however, he has good reason to be satisfied with developments over the weekend. Despite falling 10 points behind the Italians and struggling at scrum time, McGahan saw plenty to please him.

“The half time speech was about continuing what we were doing in the first half,” he declared.

“I thought the forwards laid a very good platform for us. The maul was good, the set piece was working and when we were direct we looked very good.

“We looked for more of the same. The first half of the second half was the key component.

“We lost Marcus (Horan) early on and later had Julien (Brugnaut) and Darragh (Hurley), neither of whom has had a lot of rugby, against a very good Treviso scrum, so we feel there were some positives there.

“Darragh has come back after an injury riddled 12 months; he showed a lot of energy around the field and Julien getting some game time was a benefit as well.’’

Paul Warwick again starred at full back and deservedly took the man of the match award although being the unassuming individual that he is, the Aussie preferred to look at the overall picture.

“We’re certainly improving but it’s obviously a slow process,’’ said Warwick. “We knew in this game that if we were doing the right things, we could wear them down around the 60 minute mark.

“People might have been talking about a shock result around half time but we didn’t panic. They stuck it to us and capitalised on their chances but there’s belief throughout our team.”

He added: “If the scrum isn’t working, we’ll have to get them somewhere else. Even when they got 10 points up, there was no panic. We just had to concentrate on our own game and be a bit more direct.

“It’s a step in the right direction. There were facets of our game that were good and others that need improvement. It’s definitely a work in progress and by no means are we the finished article after Round Two nor would we expect to be.

“I’m delighted to get the award but by no means am I getting carried away with myself.

“The win and the bonus point to put us top of the group was the most important thing.”