Flannery looks to right Cardiff wrongs against Ulster

Munster Forwards Coach Jerry Flannery was extremely disappointed by the 37-13 defeat Cardiff Blues on Friday to put it mildly. He is expecting a reaction when Munster play Ulster at Thomond Park in the Guinness Pro14 this weekend.

“We were massively disappointed. It wasn’t good enough. We can’t just put it down to one area. From my responsibility, the set piece didn’t function like it should have. Defensively we bled tries that were first phase tries, which were really disappointing to concede and then there was our attack.

“We didn’t convert when we got into their ’22 so yeah, there is a lot of things that we have got to work on that weren’t good enough. We thought that the main crux of it going in was that if we weathered the storm initially that we would be in the mix so awe are pretty pissed off.”

Flannery also admitted that Munster’s coaching ticket have looked inwardly after the away defeats to Glasgow Warriors and Cardiff Blues. “When you lose you tend to start looking at everything. The most important thing is to figure out what’s not an issue because you start thinking that we have got to address everything.

“We would have gone into the Cardiff game saying that they were going to come out being physical but based on the games they had played, would struggle in the last 20 minutes and because they were at home would have wanted to start strong.

“Even though it wasn’t ideal conceding the scores that we did, going in at half time I felt the game was still very much there for us. The second half was just terrible. The fact that we couldn’t get a score in the second half was really poor.”

Munster face a strong challenge from Ulster and has been impressed by them so far this season. Dan McFarland’s men have three wins and a draw from their four games. “They have shown a lot of resilience in the games they have played, coming back in the last quarter of matches.

“I know Dan McFarland is a really good coach. He hasn’t had a huge amount of time there but Simon Easterby was there before him and they will be well drilled. For us it’s a massive game. We haven’t been good enough so far this season and being at home we have to try and put in a good performance against them.

“We would like to have a flawless home record and would like to improve our ability away from home as well but for Irish Independent Park and Thomond Park it’s important for our supporters that when they come there. We have just got to be consistent whether we are home or away. It’s generally perceived that it’s easier to get results at home but we just have to win this weekend.”

Ulster are coming off the back of two games against the Cheetahs and Southern Kings in South Africa and could be fatigued going into the game. However, Flannery can also see the benefits to a new coach having that time away with his players.

“I can only go off my experience from last year and it’s taxing with the travel out there and then the coming back. Even just moving bases over there can be tough. When we went over we got two wins and came back for the Racing game.

“There is the benefit of the squad being together for two weeks which can make you tighter and I think Ulster will have fed off of those couple of weeks being there. I know Dan McFarland was probably delighted to get his teeth into the players and him them just to himself for the last two weeks. I don’t think they are going to be any weaker coming back from it.”