Foley sure Reds will cut ‘little errors’
Defence and forwards coach Foley has seen his side keep European champions Leinster from crossing the paint only to concede two tries apiece against Northampton and Castres in the following two weeks.
Both those games, of course, were victories, but won at the death thanks to the trusty boot of Ronan O’Gara, whose drop goals have given Munster an unbeaten start to the Pool 1 campaign. And as the province returns to RaboDirect Pro12 action tomorrow night against Edinburgh at Thomond Park, Foley believes his players simply need more time together on the training field to fix the defensive glitches.
“There’s little errors in what we’re doing,” he said.
“They end up scoring out wide but it’s what’s happening in and around and close that’s the real problem and if we can get to the crux of the problem we won’t get caught out out wide.
“So it’s just a matter of ironing out the little errors. We’re only back together for four weeks with the full squad so there’s still a bit of teething. Hopefully over the next period of time, we’ve 13 games on the bounce up to the end of January, so at the end of that we should be ticking over well and all the little problems that have been highlighted will hopefully have been ironed out.
“I know it’s November but with the World Cup, it’s early season from a club point of view with everybody back together.
“There are those little issues but you can’t take away from the effort and performance of the players. They’ve put themselves out there, they’ve been in bad positions where other teams would probably throw in the towel but they just hang in there and manage to work themselves into positions to get us wins.”
Munster look set to field a new back three for the visit of Edinburgh with Denis Hurley poised to drop off the wing and into the full-back’s berth for a rare appearance in the 15 jersey, while Simon Zebo and academy back Luke O’Dea were training alongside him yesterday in Cork.
Denis Leamy (hip), Donnacha Ryan (toe) and Peter Stringer, who is with the Barbarians squad for their game against Australia this weekend, are the only notable absentees from the extended squad Munster named yesterday.
Defensively, Munster will need to be back to their best to contain a side that put 48 points past Racing Metro in the Heineken Cup last Friday night, staging a dramatic 24-point second-half comeback against the French side to continue an unbeaten start to their European campaign under new coach and former Ireland scrum-half Michael Bradley.
The Scots, who also won at London Irish, recognise a trip to Thomond Park to meet the reigning league champions is another big test.
“The camp’s been brilliant all week,” said Edinburgh centre James King, who started the club’s 29-14 win in the reverse Munster fixture at Murrayfield in September.
“The match against Racing Metro was such an unbelievable game to be part of, and the crowd were great as well, but we’re realistic. It’s been all eyes on Munster since Saturday.
“Munster present a huge challenge. They’ve been going really well over the last two weeks and have had some fantastic results so it’s a big challenge to go over there — and the fact that we beat them at the start of the season means they’ll want to get one back.
“If we go over there thinking about Heineken Cup we’re going to come away with no points and it won’t be a good experience.”
Munster: Backs: J Murphy, D Howlett, D Barnes, L Mafi, Denis Hurley, L O’Dea, T Gleeson, S Zebo, S Deasy, W Chambers, I Keatley, R O’Gara, T O’Leary, D Williams, C Murray.
Forwards: M Horan, W Du Preez, J Ryan, J Hayes, D Fogarty, D Varley, BJ Botha, S Henry, S Archer, P O’Connell, I Nagle, P Butler, T O’Donnell, B Holland, M O’Driscoll, Donncha O’Callaghan, J Coughlan, N Ronan, P O’Mahony.
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