JJ Hanrahan revels in new Munster mindset

Munster will make the trip to Connacht fully loaded and are expected to include a return of a cohort of internationals rested last week

JJ Hanrahan at Munster squad training earlier this week. Picture: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

If last month’s Champions Cup victory in Clermont Ferrand was a game-changer for Munster, the same applied to JJ Hanrahan.

Here was a fly-half under pressure to deliver when his team needed him most and the recent track record in similar scenarios was none too clever. Yet as Munster leaked four tries inside the opening 24 minutes to a rampant ASM Clermont Auvergne side at Stade Marcel Michelin, it was Hanrahan’s goal-kicking that first kept the visitors in the game through three crucial first-half penalties to give them a foothold at 28-9 down.