Billy Holland hoping to learn from last years loss at Welford Road

Lock Billy Holland starts in the second row for Munster for their crucial trip to Leicester this Sunday.

The experienced forward is no stranger to European rugby, following ten years with the province. He says these back to back games can go a long way to determining the outcome of the pool.

“I think in all sport around the world its unusual to have back to back fixtures in such a crucial part of the competition where it is literally half time except you have a seven day break and you travel across the water so they’ve a very interesting dynamic. You saw what happened us last year we put one over on Leicester and they turned us over seven days later, two same fifteens’ so it is a very interesting one, it’s the making and breaking of the group really”

“It’s a unique group. All four teams could end up on equal points come Sunday night, hopefully not as it would mean we would have lost but it’s very unusual. In most groups there’s one leader and another team that’s coming in behind but that way this group is going there’s going to be no second-place team coming out of it so it does add a lot of importance to this weekend’s result for us”

Last season Munster rolled into Welford Road following a record breaking 38-0 win over the Tigers at Thomond Park but ended up losing out to a last-minute penalty.  A scenario that Holland hasn’t forgotten about.

 “We got beaten up around the pitch, yeah we scored a try with five minutes to go to ahead but they had dominated us for most of that game and we were pretty gutted afterwards with that kick but looking back on it in the cold light of day we didn’t deserve to win that game anyway”

“We expected a backlash last year and we weren’t able to deal with it. I think we need to be smarter in how we play. We probably played a little too much in the wrong areas of the pitch last year. When you go away from home in these sorts of games you need to be a lot smarter and certainly smarter than we were last weekend. We did a lot of good stuff last weekend but at times we weren’t smart. Leicester had a huge amount of opportunities that they didn’t take in Thomond Park last Saturday that I’m sure this Sunday, provided the same opportunities they will take them”

Last week Johann van Graan’s side dominated their English counterparts, forcing 20 turnovers. Holland agrees that this was a major factor in the win.

“We’ve put a lot of work into the breakdown. They’re such a good attacking side, I think since Matt O’connor has come in he’s put a huge emphasis on their attack and we were very conscious that we needed to slow the ball down and try and get the ball back off them as much as possible. I think it’s a credit to determination of the lads. A lot of the turnovers were from kick chase and things like that as well so that had a huge bearing on the outcome”

Munster and Leicester have renewed their European rivalry for the third consecutive season, Holland says it adds to the rivalry.

“I’d love to know who’s auditing the draws! It is very unusual to play the same team, a team who we’ve such a history with over the years, two of the big teams in Europe playing back to back. It of course increases the rivalry. Leicester have never lost back to back, in this round three and four ever, so in the 17 years the competition is running Leicester have never lost back to back. That shows how big of a job we have this weekend. They’re a proud club and playing against us they’ll be coming flat out to keep that stat intact”

In terms of improvements that will need to be made ahead of Sunday’s encounter, Holland says that Munster will need to be more intelligent and have more width defensively.

“I think Sammy Arnold and Rory Scannell made great reads in defence when they had huge overlaps. I think the first thing we need to do is get our spacings in defence and get more width. They will commit another body or two to the ruck I’d imagine this weekend. They play with such width in their game and they like to throw it around a huge amount with the backs that they have. I think sometimes last weekend they were a man short in their breakdown a few times so as you said they wont make that mistake again and we need to counteract it by being smarter in defence”