Penney hoping to 'keep building' in Heineken Cup

Munster coach Rob Penney believes there are plenty of positives to take from last season’s Heineken Cup to give his side the belief they can go even further this year.

Last season’s European Cup run saw them emerge from their pool of Saracens, Racing Metro and Edinburgh.

More crucially, they progressed from their pool due to Leinster’s failure to do so which saw them drop to the Amlin Challenge Cup, a competition they went on to win.

What faced the men in red next was an away quarter-final against Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins, a game in which people seemed to write off for Penney's charges only for them to power to an impressive and inspiring win.

A trip to Clermont was next in the semi-final with an eye on the Aviva Stadium as the destination for the final.

Despite Munster always looking second best, they still showed they weren’t going to be beaten easy, and when Denis Hurley crossed the line on the hour mark, the mother of all comebacks was on.

However late on when a converted try would have sealed a one-point win, referee Nigel Owens cost the province with a terrible forward pass call on their way to the line with plenty of options left and right.

This incredible European cup run was happening in the middle of the Pro 12 league crumbling around them.

This season they are in Pool 6, along with Perpignan, Edinburgh again and Gloucester, certainly not the hardest pool but they will find trips to Perpignan and Gloucester pretty tricky.

Penney, speaking at yesterday’s Heineken Cup launch in Dublin said: "Last year’s group did very well getting through the pool, a tough pool and a nice win against Harlequins and a few different bounces of the ball against Clermont could have seen us go one step further.

"The expectation every year is that Munster will be there or thereabouts and so it should be, there is a good group building and desperately keen to do well and there is no reason why if things go for you that they can’t be there."

Players and coaches will tell you that after such a cruel loss, like Munster experienced in France, it’s sometimes easier to pick areas that players need improving so they can go out next time stronger.

So what did Penney learn about his first Heineken Cup experience with Munster?

"One of the things is the robustness of the Rabo League and then backing into the Heineken, you need to have your players motivated, fit and well.

"If you’re a bit off or overdone any team in the Rabo can sting you so it’s about that emotional rollercoaster of making sure players are in the right frame of mind to do the job every week for thirty odd weeks."

As alluded to in a previous piece, Munster, and indeed Penney, came in for some heavy criticism about how they were playing and the players were often accused in the media about not knowing how to play the coach's gameplan.

So far this season they are playing with a lot more fluency and understanding about what the coach is looking for, something which Penney has taken note of.

"We are making good progress. As a management group we are always discussing where we are at and how far along the learning path we are and that’s a very subjective assessment and we are happy with the direction we are going and the effort guys are putting in.

"The key is reflected in the outcomes and we are starting to get those more consistently now and hopefully we can keep building."

Munster start what could possibly be their last ever Heineken Cup campaign on Saturday, October 12, in Murrayfield against Edinburgh, a side they collected a bonus point win from a few weeks ago.

Penney reckons the Heineken Cup will bring a stronger mentality from the Scottish pack.

"We had the same issues last year when we played them four times, Edinburgh have some quality individuals in their group and they will be hurting after last season and how they have kicked off this season.

"They will be looking at the Heineken thinking they have an opportunity to start a new tournament with a clean slate and all the history will go out the window and I think they will be a tough nut to crack."

Around the time of the Harlequins quarter final, I wrote that Munster would have to re-kindle the spirits of the "miracle match".

With Gloucester coming to Limerick again on the 19th of this month, re-kindling that should be top of the agenda according to some, but Penney admits doing that would have very little impact.

He said: "History has a bit to play and the history that Munster have against a lot of the English clubs is great.

"Gloucester may have started a little slow and having them at home first is bloody good, bringing them to Thomond Park and getting our fan base in their ear and hopefully we have a good match."