Champions Cup: Stephen Larkham says Munster can bounce back against Exeter Chiefs

Dylan Coetzee

Munster take on Exeter in the Champions Cup this weekend and senior coach Stephen Larkham believes he has a decent handle on his opponents’ game plan ahead of the clash.

Munster were beaten by Leinster last time out, surrendering a 10-game unbeaten run at home in the process. To make matters worse, they weren’t just beaten by their Irish rivals they were thoroughly outplayed.

Taking it on the chin

“We’re extremely disappointed in the (Leinster) game,” Larkham said, according to The42. “We’ve had a really good review, a real honest look at ourselves. And yeah, we’re hurting. There’s no doubt we’re hurting.

“But we’ve got to move on. That’s the game that we’re in. It’s a high performance, pressure environment where you get judged on performance, but you’ve got to let that go and you’ve got to move on straight away because if you let it linger, then it’s going to affect your next performance.”

On paper, their trip to Devon to take on Exeter is the perfect opportunity to bounce back strong, with the Chiefs’ progress this season hampered by a string of injuries.

Munster’s quiet confidence

However, Larkham is not taking anything for granted and is wary of the threats posed to Munster by some top players among the Exeter squad.

“They’ve got world-class players and I think over the last month, they’ve found their game again that you’re talking about in Europe a couple of years ago,” he said.

“I think they’re back to that form. We’ve analysed what we think is going to work against them, but they are a very dangerous side.”

That being said, the former Wallaby fly-half is confident he knows what to expect from them come matchday.

“They’ve got a very set way that they play in attack, generally with their forward carrying and then they try and get their backs involved in that next phase off the sideline. They’re getting a lot of touches in the game and they’re a very dangerous outfit,” concluded the Munster coach.

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