WATCH: Rory Scannell hoping to end poor run of results against Connacht

Munster face Connacht on Saturday in Thomond Park in the last of three consecutive interpro games. Munster’s interpro record this season has been woeful with four losses from four outings thus far.

Having hit the heights of crucial back to back European wins against the Leicester Tigers in December, Johann van Graan has been brought back to ground with a thud and now faces into another crucial trio of games.

Rory Scannell played a pivotal role in those back to back wins over Matt O’Connor’s side, but was rested for the ill-fated trip to Belfast. The Dolphin centre admits the second half at the Kingspan Stadium was difficult to watch.

“It was a hard second half to watch but as I said we played some very good rugby in the first half. We’ll look to continue that as well, I think we were still 17 nil up after 57 minutes, and even in the 73rd or 74th minute we were still winning by five and we let them in late on but yeah it was frustrating for me to watch but the guys will definitely learn from the experience.”

Attentions now turn to Connacht as the 2016 Champions come to Limerick on Saturday looking to do the double on Johann van Graan’s side after defeating them back in October at the Sportsground 20-16.

Connacht are on an upward trend regarding their Pro14 form at the moment with an excellent home win against Ulster followed up by a titanic struggle with Leinster and the RDS with Kieran Keane’s side coming up just short. Scannell feels Connacht were unlucky to not come away with more from the tie.

“I watched the game against Leinster and they were quite unlucky. They were camped on Leinster’s line for the last 7 or 8 minutes, it was 85 minutes played and they got turned over which was frustrating for them and I’m sure they’ll be looking to get a win this week as well”

Amazingly, in the loss to Connacht in Galway (highlights below), Munster were in control of the match with about 20 minutes to go until Andrew Conway was shown a straight red card for a late hit on Jack Carty which turned the tide in the home side’s favour and went on to score a decisive late try to snatch all four points from the travelling side.

That loss is almost a carbon copy of Monday’s defeat but the inside centre isn’t dwelling too much on previous results and is looking at the positives they can take from the season so far.

The two time European Champions have had a wretched time against fellow provinces this year with no wins from their four meetings but a home game at Thomond Park is sure to produce a rounded performance from Van Graan’s charges, but if it isn’t, supporters could start to become worried about the trip to Paris in two weeks.

“Obviously you never want to lose especially two in a row but I think we’ve been playing really good rugby as well. We’re second in our conference and we’re top of our pool in Europe so we’re still in a pretty good place and I think if we get a win this weekend we’ll be ok and there’s no need to panic, we’re trying to stay positive and thats what we’re going to try and do this week”

Connacht are currently 14 points off Munster, who are in second in Conference A

You can listen to Rory Scannell’s thought pre Connacht below.