Jackman positive going into Munster clash

Bernard Jackman says his Dragons side’s defence is better due to improved fitness ahead of their clash with Munster in Cork on Friday.

Munster are second in the PRO14 and haven’t lost to Dragons on Irish soil since the first season of regional rugby.

Munster’s players will do their best to give director of rugby Rassie Erasmus a win in his final match before heading home to South Africa, and they will take confidence from their formidable home record against the Dragons.

Their last five meetings have seen Munster rack up 177 points, scoring 35 points on average and 25 tries in total.

The Dragons will need to be at their defensive best to get any points against Munster and Jackman has been encouraged recently.

“If you look at where we are coming from, and even in pre-season, our defence looks a lot better,” said Jackman to southwalesargus.co.uk, with the addition of defence coach Hendre Marnitz in August clearly helping.

“The players understand the system a lot better and now it’s about being more aggressive and having more line speed.

“I think we have to understand that there are baby steps that you’ve got to go through and if you try and increase line speed and go from the bottom of the stairs to the fifth step then we will have a lot more issues.

“We need patience but building something really strong will take a little bit of time and I hopefully people can see we are on the right track.

“Certainly in terms of fitness levels, youth and exuberance we have the right ingredients to build something nice.”