Leicester Tigers will prey on Munster's errors, warns Anthony Foley

Anthony Foley has warned his Munster squad they cannot afford to be as wasteful with the ball as they have been in recent weeks when they go head-to-head with possession kings Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park tomorrow night.

After a strong start to the Pro12 campaign and a bonus-point opening Champions Cup win over Treviso, Foley has watched his players fall off the standards they set for themselves since the postponement of their Pool 4 round two clash with Stade Francais in Paris last month.

League defeats at home to leaders Connacht and then away at Newport Gwent Dragons have been marred by poor handling, bad decision-making and a lack of breakdown success that have supporters fearful of the visit of in-form old rivals Leicester to Limerick tomorrow.

Director of rugby Richard Cockerill’s side, renowned for the strength of their forward play, have added backline verve since the introduction of former All Black Aaron Mauger as head coach last summer. They have averaged the most points (34.5) and tries (4.5) per game in the Champions Cup this season in their bonus-point wins over French champions Stade Francais and Italian side Treviso and, tellingly, they lead the competition for the longest average time in possession, 21 minutes 18 seconds per game.

“They do have a lot of strings to their bow,” Foley said. “They have a huge pack, that will scrummage you, will win their lineout, will maul you if you allow them. And (Ben) Youngs at half-back is good, (fly-halves Owen) Williams, (Tommy) Bell, they put the forwards around the pitch but when they get the ball, they can go through the middle of you.

“If they want to play with width, they can do that too. They have a back three that can cut anyone open. It is important for us to make sure we look after our ball and play in the right areas of the pitch, which we haven’t done in the last couple of weeks.

“So we’ve got to train with intensity, understand it, players and coaches. Coaches will be ahead of where the players are at the moment because we’ll have been looking at them for the past four or five days, players are really getting into it now after they’ve gotten over the Dragons footage and they’ll start looking at the facts and figures around Leicester and that should heighten their awareness around how good this team are and what we need to do to win the game.”

The awareness has already hit home for Munster captain CJ Stander who said of tomorrow’s opponents, currently third in the Premiership: “They’re playing winning rugby, they’re moving the point of contact and I think that’s a change they’ve had in their team. They try to keep the ball, I think their stats are 60% possession in all the games and they’re averaging 179 passes every game. That’s the difference in the game, that you don’t really know what they’re going to do next. You have to clamp them down early and take away their set-piece, because their set-piece is good, the lineout and scrums.”

Stander firmly believes the Thomond Park clash will be decided by the forwards battle and his Munster pack must get their act together after two disappointing Pro12 outings.

“I think this is going to be where the game is won and lost. Who’s going to dominate who? In the last two weeks, the other team dominated the pack and these boys need to step up and play the Munster rugby we can, what we know from the start of the season and last season.

“As I said, that’s where the game is going to be won and lost. They have a great pack and they play exceptional rugby but we’ve trained well this week so far. Everyone’s excited.”