Coughlan: We have to go up another notch

MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan believes his player have performed heroically in securing a Heineken Cup quarter-final spot with a round of the pool stages remaining.

Although Munster have yet to show anything like the form that carried them to titles in 2006 and 2008, McGahan believes his injury-hit side have surpassed expectations.

“Even if we were at full-strength it would have been a massive struggle to get through this group against these teams. Certainly we’d like to be hitting the mark every time in terms of what we’re trying to do, but that’s not from a lack of effort or application. We need to give the players a massive amount of credit for the way they’ve carried themselves and put themselves into a position where they’re looking for a home quarter-final.”

McGahan is under no illusions that improvement is necessary if Munster are to make a bigger mark on this year’s tournament. And he’s banking on that happening at Milton Keynes against Northampton in order to secure a home draw.

He agreed: “We know we need to get better. We’d like to get that final part of what we’re looking for and we’re working hard on that. We recognise what has to be done if we want to go further in this competition. We really need parts of our game functioning properly so to be able to finish off those chances. We have the work-rate, the shape, we just need the final part.”

The small mistakes, believes McGahan, are forcing the team to work harder for victory than might be necessary and on Saturday’s display he admitted it might have been wiser to attack Castres down the narrow channels more often than out wide.

“That was certainly our game-plan. We needed to continue down the channel we just came through. We need to recognise that a little more. That’s the frustration for everyone, fans, coaches, supporters. We know that’s there and we just need to finish it off.

“We recognise the challenge we face in Northampton next week when they’ll be looking for revenge. We need to make sure we step up a few gears.”

There is recognition of that within the squad too, as articulated by number eight James Coughlan, whose frustration at Munster not securing a bonus point was compounded by his own failure to set up a try early in the game.

But Coughlan, one of Munster’s most consistent performers this season, put his hands up: “I butchered one and there were probably two more (missed try scoring chances). There were a lot of plus points, though, and I thought we played well; our tempo was excellent, especially in the second half.

“Our lineout functioned well and the scrum got us four or five penalties. I think it was very positive. The set-piece is crucial and Wian (du Preez) (Damien) Varley and (BJ) Botha had excellent games.

“We may have left tries out there but we can work on that. They are things that if we tidy up we could have won with a bonus point. We didn’t, but we won and got out of the pool and (it’s) job done. If somebody had said at the start (of the campaign), that we’d have 20 points with a match to spare, we’d have bitten their hand off.

“We need to carry this success into next week and to add polish. It’s about driving on and making sure we’ve a home quarter-final. We have to go up another notch.”