Munster hooker Niall Scannell claims there is still a lot more to come from his side in this season’s United Rugby Championship.
The Irish province got off to a poor start under Graham Rowntree’s tutelage this season, losing to Cardiff, Dragons and Connacht in difficult away games.
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However, Munster played significantly better last time out at home against the Bulls, where they claimed a 31-17 win over last season’s finalists, and Scannell still feels there is more to come from his team.
More to come
“I wouldn’t say it’s all come together,” said Scannell, “as there’s a lot more in us but we have been training really hard and it has been clicking in training and you know, sometimes when you’re seeing some of the external stuff (criticism) you’re nearly going ‘I’d love to show them what we’re doing in training’ but you can’t, you’ve got to put it out there on a Saturday.
“That’s the game we’re in, we’re professional players and we weren’t putting it out there on a Saturday. We knew that and it was frustrating but it was trying to stay positive and not put too much pressure on that because that inevitably doesn’t help. But we saw parts of it (against the Bulls), which was pleasing and I hope the fans saw part of it.
“And we’ll keep building, there is a lot to work on and we know that and we’ll keep working but it’s not that any one thing clicked. It was great to see that what we have been doing was a bit smoother.”
Scannell says the league is immensely competitive at the moment and admits the standard of teams has been raised.
“The quality of opposition is just so high now and you know it’s brought in the whole league on,” Scannell said. “Players from around the world want to play in the league and teams that traditionally weren’t as competitive, now we’re seeing that they are and it’s certainly not the narrative we’re seeing when we’re previewing teams.
“You can see teams, these guys are really attacking or these guys have a serious defence. I think sometimes the perception is that Munster should be going and beating these teams but there has to be an appreciation that the league standard has lifted across all the competition.
“The Irish derbies, they’re still special in every way. We saw against Connacht last week and we saw Leinster against Connacht at the weekend. They’re hotly contested and we know next weekend will be as well. We’ll be ready for it.
“We haven’t been playing as well as we know we can play and I think you have to go out there and earn it. But when you look at the teamsheets we’ve had over the last few weeks, there’s a lot of good players on our team and we just weren’t playing to the level we should have been and we knew that.”
Closing out the game
Munster did very well to hold on against the Bulls, who made a strong surge late in the game and Scannell was delighted to close that game out.
“We can’t beat around the bush, they’re a hugely physical team. They’re big men and that’s an area of the game they pride themselves on and it’s an area of the game that we really pride ourselves on, so we knew there would be a bit of warfare in there and to come out on top of the two big exchanges was huge.
“Yeah, you just don’t want to put yourself in that position where they score and all of a sudden now there’s a lot more in the game and more on the line, so it was a good positive to just close that out and that’s a big boost to the confidence as well.”