Anthony Foley must steady Munster's ship before it heads over a waterfall

It would be tempting to say Munster could do with a week or two off to sort out the numerous issues that have them, in CJ Stander’s words, heading towards the waterfall, but that is not an option for the men in red.

To stretch the captain’s metaphor, aired in yesterday’s Irish Examiner coverage of Sunday’s 24-7 Guinness Pro12 home defeat to Leinster, the good ship Munster has hit the rocks, sprung several leaks and is careening down rapids towards the precipice.

Five straight defeats, during which much of the damage has been self-inflicted, represents the worst period of form since a miserable Celtic League run in October 2003. That particular campaign saw the province finish in seventh place, still ahead of arch-rivals Leinster and Connacht, and they got their act together sufficiently to reach the Heineken Cup semi-finals, losing to Wasps at Lansdowne Road.

The present predicament is altogether more ominous. League form back then was largely irrelevant for Declan Kidney’s men as they poured all their efforts into reaching the holy grail of European glory.

In today’s world of meritocracy, head coach Anthony Foley can afford no such complacency.

Their Champions Cup campaign is on a knife-edge after three Pool 4 games thanks to home and away defeats to Leicester Tigers while Sunday’s Thomond Park defeat saw them drop to sixth in the Pro12 standings.

Foley will need no reminding of the need to finish as one of the first three Irish provinces come season’s end to be assured of qualification for next season’s Champions Cup, as the chances of one of the Italian clubs claiming a rightful place via a top-seven league finish appear nigh impossible nearing the halfway point in the season.

So Munster’s current position behind Connacht, Leinster and Ulster hardly makes for comfortable reading as we turn into 2016 and a fixture list that offers up four away games in the next five during January.

That includes a rearranged trip to Paris to face Stade Francais on January 9, where a defeat would mark a premature end to European interest before the knockout stages for the second season in succession.

The French champions fulfil a return fixture at Thomond Park as Foley’s men seek to avoid a fourth straight defeat on home turf before rounding out the month with not one but two Italian jobs, Treviso to complete the Champions Cup pool and Zebre in the league.

Before all of that, the New Year starts with Munster bidding to get back to winning ways with that toughest of league away days, Ulster at Ravenhill, an upwardly mobile Ulster at that.

“It’s a lovely place to go and we’re all looking forward to going there, you don’t want me to say that, do you?” asked the head coach in response to a reporter’s request for a headline-grabbing quote about the mission to Belfast.

“Look, playing away from home is difficult and we have four away games coming up out of five and the next month and a bit is going to be tough.

“I think during the Christmas period, you do your home and away interpros games, so it’s every year. We went up there last year and I thought we acquitted ourselves quite well. We need to go and win there this year and it is going to be quite difficult, particularly with the run they’re on at the moment.

“Confidence is high and the support they get up there in Ravenhill will add an extra couple of yards. We have to get a game plan that is suited towards us and trying to get a result.”

Given Munster’s current struggles at home, where league losses to Connacht and Leinster have bookended the European defeat by Leicester, it might possibly be something of relief to get away from Thomond Park, where the pressure seems to be building with every instinctive groan that greets the knock-ons and turnovers that are the source of the current malaise.

“Yeah,” Foley sort of agreed on Sunday night, “we have to get to a point where we’re comfortable around what we are doing and we are getting that scoreboard ticking over and getting results that are more favourable towards us than we’re getting at the moment.

“We are working hard to rectify (the mistakes), we’re working hard to not do it and unfortunately we’re still doing it. It’s just groundhog day in here after this game. So it’ll be the same answers.”

It is different answers Foley needs to find on the pitch, however, if he is to arrest the slide into mediocrity and the ranks of the also-rans. He knows he has a talented squad, a strong set-piece and a gameplan to worry teams, with pace and power. That much is obvious from the possession and territory statistics his team is racking up week in, week out. What he needs now is some defensive nous without the ball and clinical execution when it’s in hand in the opposition 22.

“We’d imagine there’s a lot of criticism out there, you don’t have to go looking too far to find it,” Foley said. “You know it’s there and you have to try and get on with the game and do the best job you can do.

“Everybody has an opinion but not everybody has the full facts about what’s going on, you’ve just got to deal with it and not get too upset about it.”