Davies warning for Red Army

Gloucester coach Nigel Davies has warned Munster they face a perilous visit to the West Country for round five of the Heineken Cup.

Davies backed the decision to rotate his Cherries squad and insisted he had no regrets, despite failing to gain even a losing bonus point off the back of a gutsy performance.

“We’ve come to a very difficult place, we’ve put in a performance, and we’ll look forward to taking on Munster at Kingsholm,” he said. “It was a great game, great intensity, we’ll have home advantage next time and there’s no doubt that gives you an edge.

“Munster are a good side and they’ll only get better this season. They know their game, play it very well, and bring a real physical edge. We knew all of that beforehand but we matched them in large parts around that area. We’ll take confidence that we can do just that little bit better when we face them at Kingsholm.

“Ultimately our inaccuracy on the ball let Munster off the hook a little bit, especially given their desperation to perform after defeat by Edinburgh. This group is wide open now, the upcoming back-to-back sequences will tell us quite a bit but round five should be quite significant.

“I would imagine both sides will come into that off the back-to-backs in decent shape.”

Although Davies made wholesale changes for the tie he denied that it was a Gloucester second-string team, saying: “People can make their own mind up based on that performance, at the effort and endeavour our team put in. It doesn’t sit comfortably with me to say that was a second team, because it wasn’t at all. There are a lot of positions up for grabs in my squad at the moment. We’ve had a few injuries and Billy Twelvetrees and Henry Trinder would have started had they been fit.

“People have made quite a lot of it, but the explanation I’ve just given is in terms of developing that squad, and allowing them to prepare properly, that of allowing the players to show what they could do. We’ve had a strategy all along in terms of Europe and we’ll hopefully be able to deliver that.

“In terms of the result, I’m bitterly disappointed because I genuinely thought we could get something out of the game. The fact we weren’t accurate enough when we had opportunities around the ball is our own doing in many ways, but in terms of the effort, spirit and commitment it was fantastic, and I’m very, very proud of that group of players.

“I was comfortable all along it was the right thing to do: we had a very physical encounter against Perpignan, we probably wouldn’t have made as many changes as we did, but we had some changes forced on us through injury this week. The players who played were able to prepare mentally and physically for this big match, and for me they performed to a large degree.

“To be successful domestically and in Europe you must have strength in depth. To develop that you can buy players or you can develop what you’ve got internally. The only way to develop rugby players is to play them, and play them in big competitions. ”