WATCH: CJ Stander admits Munster will miss opportunity for silverware if performances don’t improve

Munster back row forward CJ Stander admits that his side will need to learn from their mistakes as they go in what has been a busy few weeks for the province, in which they’ve suffered two disappointing defeats to provincial rivals Leinster on St Stephen’s Day and then Ulster on New Year’s.

With just a five day turn around the South African says that it is more a matter of each player being professional enough to make sure that they don’t make too many individual errors that will impact the team.

“You don’t have a lot of time to learn from your mistakes I think you learn on the go. We learn a lot in the game (v Ulster) we look into the game and see what we can fix and review but there’s not a lot of time. We’re playing on Saturday again, I think we’re all professional enough to make sure that those small individual errors will get sorted out.”

The last few weeks will have frustrated the Munster camp but in the grand scheme of things the side are in a healthy position in Europe and domestically. Van Graan’s side are four points clear at the top pool 4 in the Champions Cup and sit comfortably in the playoff places in conference A of the Pro 14.

Stander says that it may seem as though it’s been a good first half of the campaign but that if the poor form isn’t rectified Munster could be in trouble.

“We started well, there was a few slip ups along the way. It probably looks good but there’s a lot of rugby to be played. If you don’t get your win and bonus points out of the games you’re going to be struggling to get a home (semi) or to qualify for the quarter finals.

“We’ve learned that over the last few years, that everything is in our hands and we need to make sure that we get our points on the board because if you slip up as we did over the last few weeks and with that form it will be difficult to perform and you’re not even going to get the opportunity.”