Billy Holland: Munster can’t keep winning matches on heart alone

Munster players will not be getting carried away by their long-awaited return to the winners’ enclosure as they prepare to face Treviso in Italy this Sunday, with Billy Holland instead looking for the squad to take more baby steps towards putting in a more rounded performance.

Last Saturday’s 26-13 Champions Cup win over Stade Francais was fuelled by a perfect storm of emotions following the previous week’s humiliating 27-7 defeat to the 14-man French title holders in Paris and a desperate run of results that had brought just one win since mid-November.

Anger, embarrassment, and determination to atone for past wrongs delivered a bonus-point victory at Thomond Park, the emotion of the occasion more than compensating for the still apparent shortcomings in Munster’s performance.