Creating our own entity after O’Garas, O’Connells and O’Callaghans

Benetton Treviso v Munster, Guinness PRO12: It is perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Munster’s European Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Saracens last week; that not a single member of the team or coaching setup has deluded themselves about the merit of the English team’s victory.

The stout-hearted Billy Holland is another who has faced up to reality while insisting that things can be better in the future and that the current season has still much to offer, starting with Saturday’s visit to Treviso.

“Waking up on Sunday morning wasn’t the nicest position in the world to be in,” Holland admitted.

“It’s a lifelong goal to win a European Cup with Munster and that has been put on hold for another season. We will learn from it and see what we can take from it. There were one or two scrums where we were probably naive.

"We started off well and got on top in one and then we lost one and I think that changed the referees’ perception. I think for us to beat them, we needed to have the game of our lives. We needed to be on top of our game, which we weren’t.”

While Saracens clearly had a considerable edge in experience, Billy Holland dismissed the theory that Munster weren’t mentally up for the challenge.

“In previous years, maybe there was a mental issue but I don’t think last Saturday was a mental block. “Twelve months ago we were fighting to get into Europe. Full stop. Twelve months later we are battling for the top two in Europe.

"That is an incredible feat with pretty much the same players. I think last Saturday, unfortunately for us, we needed to play the game of our lives and we needed to take our opportunities. That did not happen. And that wasn’t a mental thing.

“I was chatting to a few of the Irish guys who beat England a few weeks back in the Six Nations. They reckon that Saracens are a better team than the England team who were going for a World Record 19 wins in a row. In previous semi-finals, possibly, they may have mentally imploded a little but that was not the case last Saturday.”

For longer than Billy would like to remember, he was forced to take a secondary seat back in the day when legends of Munster rugby like Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Mick O’Driscoll and others dominated the second-row position. So it’s only in recent years that he has been provided with a platform on which to display his talents. He has taken full advantage to emerge as one of the key men in the Munster pack.

“The last 24 months have gone very well for me. What I’ve always wanted was to start with Munster and win trophies with Munster. Of course winning the European Cup would be the ultimate ambition. It makes it very difficult to have gotten to one part which is starting in a semi-final and not following through on it.

"But we will get back, the quality of the squad, the young fellas coming through, what the A lads did on Friday night... we are in a very positive position with a huge amount to play for through the rest of the season.

“Over the next couple of years, with the group of players that are here and hopefully I can be part of that, I feel I have a lot left in me... look at Donncha O’Callaghan, 38 and you can’t get rid of him, he’s about seven or eight years older than me. I’m enjoying my rugby and it’s great playing with this group of lads.

“There’s a lot of energy there and pride in what we are doing, we’re creating our own little entity which is apart from your O’Connells, your O’Callaghans, your O’Garas, we’re creating something and on our own little journey. It has taken us a couple of years to separate from that.

“What they have achieved may never be repeated on a provincial level, but what we’re now creating has been coming over the last two or three years.”