Ian Costello seeking consistency from Munster

Munster may well travel to Italy this weekend within reach of the Guinness PRO12 lead but they are acutely aware how quickly their status could change if they allow complacency to creep in ahead of Saturday’s visit to Zebre.

Anthony Foley’s side has been riddled with inconsistency of late, and not just from one game to the next but also over 80 minutes. Interval leads were blown on their last two away games, at Glasgow and Connacht, the second-half meltdown in Galway on New Year’s Day undoing all the good work Munster had put in on St Stephen’s Day when they cast aside arch rivals Leinster at Thomond Park.

Yet, after a weekend which saw the top two sides Ospreys and Glasgow beaten and Ulster fail to take advantage in going down at Leinster, Munster remained in third, still only three points off top spot.

Assistant coach Ian Costello, however, is urging his players to ignore the league position as they aim to get back to winning ways in Parma by righting the wrongs of Munster’s performance last time out. Put simply, with the final two Champions Cup pool games following straight on, the Reds need a big performance against Zebre.

“What was disappointing for us over the last two weeks is to raise our standards against Leinster and probably our most comprehensive performance of the season when we looked and analysed it, then to let ourselves down against Connacht when we conceded some soft tries,” Costello said.

“We have to establish that consistency to go into these games. Zebre are a good side at home, I know some of their results recently haven’t really shown that but they have got some quality players.

“If we look beyond that or we are in any way complacent, I think we will be punished at the weekend — we don’t have the luxury. We got lucky this weekend with other results in the Pro12 but we have things under our control and that is going out and getting four points at the weekend.”

As impressive as Munster’s win over Leinster was, it has been their only success in five starts, including back-to-back European defeats to Clermont Auvergne, and despite Zebre occupying bottom in the Pro12 following three straight defeats, Costello is not expecting the Italians to do the Irish side any favours this weekend as they target a third home win of the season.

“They have beaten Ulster (on September 27) and we are well aware of that. Last weekend they were narrowly beaten by Treviso, but a lot of their key players only came off the bench at half-time. I imagine that is in view to a home game against us this week, so we expect to face them at full strength and a lot of those influential players back and fresh.

“In the second-half (against Treviso last weekend) we got a true reflection of how dangerous they can be when Brendon Leonard and Tommaso Iannone are playing at nine and 10. There is such a strong axis to the team. Then Samuela Vunisa their No.8 and there’s Dries Van Schalkwyk in the back row as well. The four of those really make them tick.”

While Munster remain hopeful loosehead prop James Cronin and versatile Ireland back Keith Earls will be fit to play against Zebre, the latter making his seasonal debut if he suffers no reaction from training to his right knee following surgery in September, Costello suggested hooker Duncan Casey may be rested while lock Donnacha Ryan (toe) and scrum-half Cathal Sheridan (forearm) still have some way to progress before they are available.

“We understand from the Donnacha Ryan injury, scrummaging is the crux of it,” Costello said. “But from my understanding he hasn’t done any scrummaging yet to really test it out like that so he is not really on the short-term radar.”