Dougall looking to build on positive start

Munster’s new openside flanker Sean Dougall is hopeful he and his teammates can push on from the impressive victory over Edinburgh on the first day of the season, when they face Treviso in Thomond Park on Friday (8pm).

Despite conceding three tries to a Tim Visser hat-trick, Munster came away from Murrayfield with a 23-18 victory thanks to tries from Ian Keatley and Luke O’Dea and five successful kicks at goal from Keatley.

Friday’s match will mark Rob Penney’s first competitive home game in charge against a Treviso team looking to build on last weekend’s victory over PRO12 Champions Ospreys.

While Dougall has played in Thomond Park before, for Ulster-A and the U-20s, should he feature on Friday it would be his first Munster appearance in the stadium and he admits it will be a huge occasion if he gets to play.

"If I am involved, it’ll obviously be the biggest game I’ve played there and of course it’s something I’m really looking forward to,” he said.

“They (Treviso) beat the holders last weekend and we'd be looking to step up on last weekend's performance."

Things may have gone Munster’s way in the end last Saturday but they were made to work for the result especially when Visser ran over for his second try after the Irish province had enjoyed their best passage of play.

Dougall credits the senior players for taking charge at this juncture in the game and ensuring the team didn’t lose focus.

“Dougie and Donncha and the other senior players were telling us not to panic. It was just one of those things.

“It wasn’t as if we’d gone through phases and made loads of mistakes. It was like a one off, they turned the ball over and then capitalised on it and they were very good at that.

"But from our point of view it was a case of re-grouping and starting off again."

Prior to last Saturday’s triumph Munster had struggled click into gear under Penney’s stewardship, losing heavily to La Rochelle and London Irish in the pre-season and registering just one win over an average Bristol outfit.

But the lessons of those defeats obviously paid off as Munster produced a much higher standard of rugby in Murrayfield and Dougall believes the pre-season games helped by highlighting the team’s strengths and areas which needed improvement.

"It was good we had those games because we knew where we were at.

“We knew there were a couple of areas we had to work at for the Edinburgh game. And there were positives out of there.

"Obviously its early days and there are still things to work on but it has been a good positive start and we hope we can step up a notch again on Friday night.”