Jonny May itching to avenge thumping at Thomond Park

As he reflects on last week’s defeat to Munster at Thomond Park, Jonny May puffs out his cheeks and sighs.

“It is as tough a game as I’ve ever played in,” says the Leicester Tigers winger. “Before you know it you’re 20 points down. It was a shock.

“You know what is coming – but it is still a shock. That’s what is weird about it. You know exactly what is coming, but it still shocked us.

“I have never really experienced anything like that before in terms of the way they went about the breakdown, their intensity and their game plan.”

It is now three days since Leicester were beaten 33-10 by Munster as May talks through where things went wrong. The Tigers training ground maybe covered in snow, but there is fire inside the winger’s heart.

Any defeat in the Champions Cup is hard to take, but for the England international it was the manner of Munster’s performance that left an impression on him.

May had been to Thomond Park before the weekend, travelling there with Gloucester a few years back, but last Saturday’s experience was nothing like that.

This time, as he talks through the pain of defeat, it is his appreciation of how Munster stopped Leicester playing that shines through.

“It is not saying it in a negative light, but they are dead set on stopping you doing what you do,” May explains.

“They are as much focused on that, in terms of they want to spoil your breakdown, they want to get in your face, they want to make everything a 50-50. Do you know what I mean? They are happy to do anything.

“Then on top of that the crowd, they grow and they grow and they grow. That’s the way I can describe it. It is the way they went about stopping us doing our things, which won them the game.

“They were the better team on the day, but they didn’t win because they outplayed us. They won because they completely nailed us. They stopped us doing everything.”

The hope for Leicester this weekend is that they can reverse last Saturday’s result when the two sides meet again tomorrow at Welford Road.

The cold snap that swept across the Midlands earlier this week forced the Tigers’ players to watch the tape from the defeat to Munster an extra few times as the pitches were covered in snow. Leicester’s post-match reviews are notoriously brutal after a loss and head coach Matt O’Connor revealed on Tuesday, with a wry smile, he had given the squad “abuse”.

Not that would have been particularly needed on May, who confesses the hurt from that night in Thomond will sit with him all week – even if he is determined to put things right.

“Everyone is hurting and that’s when you have just got to dig deep haven’t you,” he says.

“You have got to come out with a reaction and you’ve got to learn. That’s why, as much as it has been a tough week for me, I am enjoying the fact that I have been put in this situation.

“It is these times you learn from - going away to Munster, night game, in the Champions Cup - and getting a job done on you really to be honest.

“The hurt has sat with us all week. There will be some lessons learned and people want to go out there and prove a point.”

May is one of those who will know he can give a better account of himself than he did last weekend. The winger has been in fine form for Leicester ever since he joined from Gloucester this summer. May is the joint top try scorer in the Aviva Premiership (7) while he also helped himself to one for England against Australia during the autumn. Now, though, he is set about laying down a marker in Europe in exactly the sort of game he joined Leicester to be a part of.

“I am really pleased with how things are going here for me,” May says.

“I feel like I have had a good start to the season and it is everything I wanted to do – challenge myself, learn around new players and get better.

“As much as I have had good games here, and that feels good, it is the games like this at the weekend that are going to make you a better player.” May will just be hoping this time he can learn his lessons through victory and not defeat.