Howlett confident Munster can show true colours at Thomond Park

Doug Howlett is confident Munster can bounce back from their opening day defeat to Racing Metro and qualify for the knockout phase of the Heineken Cup.

It has been a torturous week for Rob Penney’s squad watching and squirming as the DVD of Stade de France has been replayed time and again as they attempt to discover why they lost a game they could have killed off in the opening half. Tomorrow is the first opportunity to put the lessons learned into play when Michael Bradley’s Edinburgh come to Thomond. And Howlett is certain that the hosts will produce a performance that can soften the coughs of their critics.

He explained: “We still have everything to play for, we made a couple of costly errors last week but we’re making very good strides overall and I’m confident we’ll put in a better performance to steer us straight.”

Experience tells him it would be foolish to pressurise the team into seeking a bonus-point win over the visitors who were crushed 0-45 by Saracens last time out.

“That’s out of our hands, where the Saracens are at this moment. After our result from the weekend we are just looking for a performance, it’s great to be home after three tough ones on the road and we’re looking forward to Thomond Park, to welcoming our home fans back and being welcomed by the crowd. It is still early in the competition, after going down in the first game we don’t want to make too many assumptions. We just want to play our game. We never go chasing bonus points. If they’re on offer we like to go and score tries and take them. Our game plan is set out to try to score tries, but talking about trying for bonus points is never up for discussion.”

One of the few positive from Paris was the return of Paul O’Connell after a five-month injury lay-off. He resumes his partnership with Donncha O’Callaghan tomorrow, all welcome news to the All Black legend.

“It is always a huge boost when Paulie comes back to join us, whether that’s from injury or international duty. He is such an influential player — he has so much experience and always says the right thing. Guys just look to follow his lead.”

But one of the new talents has caught Howlett’s eye. In the absence of the injured Wian du Preez, Dave Kilcoyne was last week handed his first Heineken Cup start and handled the challenge in Paris with all the aplomb of a veteran. He has been given a resounding vote of confidence for tomorrow’s home tie against Edinburgh.

Veteran he is not, but the 23-year-old has a build to match most opponents and, according to the skipper, the required skills to go with it: “Dave has really shone in pre-season and has put in really good performances for us. He has come on leaps and bounds, besides his ability in the scrums. His round-the-field play is tops; he has come through to lead our forward pack in terms of ball in hand. The way we are playing, I guess, suits his style and we’ll look for more from him in weeks and months ahead.”