Downey Looks Ahead To Connacht Clash

Following on from Munster’s first home defeat in this season’s RaboDirect PRO12, we catch up with centre James Downey ahead of this weekend’s must win tie away to Connacht.

We firstly got James’ thoughts on the performance against Glasgow Warriors which was in stark contrast to that seen against Toulouse the weekend before;

“Credit to Glasgow, they wanted it more than us which is something you don’t normally associate with Munster. That said we’ve had a look at the video, we’ve seen where we went wrong and opportunities we left out there. I guess the good thing about rugby is you only have to wait another week and you can turn that round, so we’ll be looking to turn things around this weekend.”

Was it the case to that Munster got caught up in the Heineken Cup euphoria and took their eye off the RaboDirect PRO12?

“Personally I don’t think that should happen, you’re a professional player and you shouldn’t need for it to be a big game to be up for it. It’s about wearing the jersey, the crest and the people you represent. Paulie (O’Connell) always says – you’re just minding that jersey for someone else and you need to put your hand up, step up and do a job, because if you don’t, someone else will.”

James continued by stressing the importance of a result this weekend and highlighting where they need to improve for Saturday’s interprovincial clash;

“Both ourselves and Connacht lost last week so both teams are coming together looking for a result and a performance. I really think we need to stick to that word performance cause that’s what we’re looking for….there’s only three games left and we need to win every single one.

We need to eradicate all the dropped balls from our game and stick to our methods. We need better ball protection as possession is the main thing, if you don’t have it you can’t score. Our defence also needs to be tightened up, last weekend we conceded a lot of yardage, which is not what you’d normally associate with Munster.”

With a Heineken Cup semi-final just under a fortnight away, some teams may be excused for prioritising a trip to the balmy south of France over local league derby in Galway. Not however Munster;

“You’ve got to show Connacht the respect they deserve. We saw what happened last week against Warriors and we’ve got to rectify that this week. Lads who didn’t put their hands up for selection last weekend will have a chance to do so again on Saturday.”

Connacht v Munster, Sportsground, Galway – Saturday April 19th, KO 6:15pm