John Hodnett: 'We had a good look at ourselves and we need to be better this week'

“It’s hard to get a bigger challenge than this really, going to play over in Glasgow?"

Fri, 21 Mar, 2025 - 06:02

Simon Lewis

The time for post-defeat introspection at Munster is over, now comes the difficult part of righting wrongs at Glasgow Warriors, with John Hodnett believing there can be no bigger challenge in the URC than a visit to Scotstoun.

The openside flanker, back at Munster with a spring in his step after his first experience of an Ireland camp during the Six Nations campaign believes his province has learned the lessons of their February 28 defeat at home to Edinburgh last time out and that Ian Costello’s squad are eager to put their plan into effect when they meet the defending champions and current second-placed side in front of a partisan Scotstoun crowd.

Hodnett, 26, played the full 80 minutes of the 34-28 reverse to Edinburgh in Cork, when Munster were outgunned 29-7 in the opening 40 minutes by a side bristling with physicality after back-to-back defeats. The game fell in the middle of his fortnight as a member of Simon Easterby’s Irish squad but he believes the two-week gap between Munster matches has been beneficial for a side now itself hurting in the wake of an unexpectedly below-par performance.

“Yeah, that's disappointing,” Hodnett said. “We know we're better than that. We just didn't produce it on the night, unfortunately, and we spent last week reviewing it and a bit this week and we've a plan in place now to be better and all we have to do now is go out and execute it on Friday and I feel if we do that we will be in with a good chance.

“We have obviously had more time to prepare and look forward to this game. At the same time you'd like to go out and just right the wrongs straight away if you can, but it's good. There’s a bit of hunger and there's a lot of excitement around playing again.

“The two weeks have been good, we had a good look at ourselves and we need to be better this week. We need to be a lot, lot better if we want to challenge Glasgow.”

Hodnett has returned from his Ireland experience without dwelling on the possibilities it has opened for him, merely grateful for time well spent at the IRFU High Performance Centre.

“Just turn up here and do my best every week and whatever happens after that just happens,” he explained of his action plan. “You come back with a spring in your step. It's kind of hard to explain, but yeah, it's exciting going into Irish camp and so good.”

The former Clonakilty RFC back-rower now looks forward to helping Munster produce a positive reaction to their last game, aware of the difficult task awaiting them in Glasgow.

“It’s hard to get a bigger challenge than this really, going to play over in Glasgow? They're a good team, they're really well coached, we've had a good few battles against them over the last couple of years and there's definitely a bit of a rivalry there.

“There's no doubt they're a very well coached team, very detailed, very good around what they do so we we're going to have to be a lot better than we were against Edinburgh anyway if we want to win, especially over in Glasgow.

“It's that extra challenge again. They normally get a good crowd playing at home as well so you add all that in and it's a big challenge, but it's exciting. It's getting in towards that business time of the season and it's exciting.”