The South African pair admitted they adapted well to the referee during Connacht tie.

Munster recorded their first Inter Provincial derby win of the season over Connacht on Saturday night thanks to tries from Conor Murray (2), Andrew Conway, Keith Earls and Darren O’Shea and Johaan Graan admitted that he was very happy with the result going into another big European week.

“Very pleased with the result. Very pleased with the bonus point and very pleased with a very good team performance and some brilliant performance by individuals”

Speaking at the post match press conference in Thomond Park, the Munster head coach touched on a number of topics, but the improvement of his side’s discipline was one of the first topics to come up with only nine penalties conceded throughout the 80 minutes, which is a notable improvement on the previous two matchdays.

Munster fans though would have been left worried by their sides start on Saturday night when Connacht’s Jack Carty slotted a penalty with less than three minutes on the clock but the home side reacted well and there would be no repeat of the Leinster game this time out. Van Graan was happy with how his side reacted to the concession of the early penalty.

“Yeah. It was three games out of four that we conceded a penalty in the first minute. I thought which swayed it a bit was the penalties in the scrum, we haven’t conceded a penalty at scrum time for quite some time. I think we conceded three penalties in the first half at scrum time”

“I thought we adapted quite well to the referee after he called in both teams for the break down and the way that he wanted it. I thought we adapted very well especially at break down time”

“I thought well done to CJ, I thought he did very well in captaining the side and a very good performance by him”

Captaining the side for the game, CJ Stander led from the front against Kieran Keane’s charges with 6 carries and an impressive 31 metres gained in total.

After blowing a 17 point lead against Ulster, Stander admitted that they couldn’t give Connacht anything on Saturday and when they came under pressure early in the second half, the leaders of the team got together and refocused.

“I think we started slow again this time but it was just for a quick while and I think we just looked up and it was me, Mur, Keats and Earlsy and we just said to each other ‘look we need to kick on here now again, we can’t let that happen again what happened last week’. We just kicked on and just made sure we kept the ball and put them under pressure because we had the wind behind us.”

Van Graan also echoed Stander’s sentiments and was happy with how the side adjusted.

“I thought we adapted after 20 minutes on the field that’s why there’s radios and constant communication. We try to adapt to the referee as soon as possible, like I said you watch for certain trends and after he called in both captains we said listen we’ve got to stay out of the breakdown in terms of contesting.”

The backrow trio of Stander, Jack O’Donoghue and Conor Oliver, the latter being awarded man of the match, worked extremely well together at the breakdown and in defence making 43 tackles altogether and winning three turnovers.

Darren O’Shea of Munster takes the ball from the match kick-off. Guinness PRO14 Rugby, Munster V Connacht at Thomond Park, Limerick on 06/01/2018. Credit: Conor Wyse

Given that it was Oliver’s first game back since pre season following a shoulder injury, it made the stats and the performance that bit more impressive and the No. 8 was as impressed as us looking in from the outside.

“I think, everywhere in the world if you cant play winger or centre you go into the back row. These two boys showed the pace they have today, the intensity, I mean Conor Oliver comes back from a long lay off, from the pre season, comes back gets man of the match.

“Jack O’Donoghue always pitches up, I think he worked hard over the last few weeks, I think Johann is going to have a tough few weeks to pick his side, especially in the back row.”