Ian Costello: Munster's Champions Cup pain can fuel URC campaign

Munster welcome the Bulls to Thomond Park this Saturday following their 47-29 defeat at Bordeaux-Begles last Saturday.

Interim head coach Ian Costello and Peter O'Mahony after the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final match between Bordeaux Begles and Munster. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.

The physical toll from two heavyweight Champions Cup contests in France may have been huge for Munster but interim boss Ian Costello believes the pain of a European quarter-final exit can fuel the rest of the province’s URC campaign.

There will be no soft landing for Munster as they regroup to welcome the Bulls to Thomond Park this Saturday following their 47-29 defeat at Bordeaux-Begles last Saturday.

And after two tough examinations of their mettle in La Rochelle and seven days later at Stade Chaban-Delmas, there could have been easier challenges than a visiting South African franchise looking to remain on course for a home quarter-final in the play-offs at the end of May.

Munster, though, are in must-win territory and with three home games in their remaining four regular-season fixtures, they need to draw on every ounce of motivation they can get to nail down a top-eight finish.

Heading into the weekend, Costello’s side are lying fifth, six points points behind the Sharks in the fourth and final home quarter berth but with only nine points separating them and the Lions in 14th.

A lot could go wrong between now and the final whistle of their Round 18 showdown with Benetton in Cork on May 16 but the hope within the campaign is that the frustration of their first 50 minutes against Bordeaux, when the Top 14 effectively put the game beyond a Munster side whose inaccuracy left them 29-3 down after 33 minutes, can fire the Reds into the URC play-offs if harnessed effectively.

“I think it absolutely can, that hurt and disappointment,” Costello said, “but we’ve got to get that balance with the confidence and the belief. If we get that balance right through the rest of week and into Saturday and beyond then it’s not a bad combination.”

Munster are under no illusions as to the size of the challenge facing them in Limerick on Saturday evening. The Bulls rotated their travelling squad for last weekend’s Challenge Cup quarter-final in Scotland and came out 34-28 losers to Edinburgh and Costello expects Jake White to field a fully-loaded line-up at Thomond Park.

“Look, we’re playing pretty much a top of the table team for the last few years. They’ve been really consistent. They mixed their side last week and we’ve got it on good authority that their focus is on the URC and they’ll see us as a threat coming towards them.

“So we know they’ll be at full strength this week. We know they’ll be really motivated, we know they’ll be really physical so yeah, they keep coming but do you know what, sometimes after a disappointment like that, something like this to sharpen the focus is no harm.

“And it’s at home, we haven’t been at home for ages. Our fans have been incredible over the last few weeks and I hope it continues with a home game. We haven’t experienced anything like the atmosphere, La Rochelle in particular and even last week was special and that connection at the end.

“And again, part of the disappointment piece was about letting them down, so we hope now we get a chance at home in front of our friends and family as well as supporters to get a reaction, get a response.” 

Costello acknowledged that some fresh minds and bodies may be called for to get that response. Munster will likely involve new front-row loan arrivals from Leinster, loosehead prop Michael Milne and hooker Lee Barron following injuries to Jeremy Loughman and Diarmuid Barron, while John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes and Calvin Nash may not be risked with their respective fitness problems even if they pass fit.

The Munster boss said the physical toll alone of back-to-back knockout games on the road at La Rochelle and Bordeaux was “huge”, though that was not the reason for defeat last Saturday.

A lot of thought went into the manner in which the Munster coaches would approach the post-game debrief after the lineout badly malfunctioned and handling errors undermined attacking opportunities and gifted Bordeaux turnover chances they were happy to exploit.

“There is an emotional tax and a mental tax when you have long reviews and tough reviews,” Costello said.

“So we had a tough, punchy review but at the centre of that, if I’m really honest, was that nothing has changed around the belief we had and the confidence we had last Friday.

“We had a really poor performance for around 55 minutes and we’re pissed off. We’re really disappointed that was the account we gave of ourselves. We figured we could go toe-to-toe with those, honestly, no doubt. Unfortunately we haven’t proven that because for 55-60 minutes we weren’t good enough.

“What we’ve really focused on, or doubled down on, we’ve tried to amplify was how much good we’ve had in the last month and how well we’re set up for the rest of the season.

“So we had to own it, learn from it and move one. That’s what we talked about, and we had to be honest, because we always are, so it was a tough review but it was about owing it – what are the key things we need to learn fast because we’ve only two training days, but then getting really excited about the challenge, at home.

“We’ve three home games out of the next four and we have to get into the play-offs. So we haven’t the time, it would consume you if we let it, so it was really about turning the page and moving on. Genuinely it was very, very tough but by the time we got onto the pitch and we trained there was a lot of energy again in the building and there’s real evidence of a very strong foundation over the last month.

“We’ll see on Saturday did that come out but that was the chat today, that was the focus but we have to back it up on Saturday.”