After a performance which may - at least temporarily- have quietened some of the outside noise that's been gathering around Munster and specifically Johann van Graan of late, the man himself maintained his unflustered demeanour.
“I think we’ve been pretty consistent in our messaging” said the Munster head coach after Sunday’s victory over Wasps. “The team is in a really good place, we’re very glad that we could play games. We know we had the Wasps game and some of the guys came back for the Castres game. Then we had the postponement of the Leinster game. So inside the camp, (everything is) really good.
“We just stuck to our process. We are excited. We’ve won games in different ways so very glad that we’re through this period with five out of six. We’ve qualified as the third team for the round of 16 and I think we’re pretty well set in the URC. So, great to be in this position and really looking forward to next week.”
Since their troubled trek to South Africa which divided the squad into three separate troubles and left them without a game for seven weeks, Munster have now responded with five wins out of six.
“Who would have thought when we got on the plane to South Africa what was lying ahead,” van Graan reflected on a trying two months.
“Now six games later, four out of four in Europe, beat Ulster with 14 men and a sub-standard performance against Connacht losing 10-8, we certainly would have taken that. In terms of continuity that’s the difficult thing.
“What we have gone through we have never used it as an excuse. It was just the way it was. And, look, in fairness to everybody who was involved in what we just call the process, week-in week-out, we are definitely improving week-in week-out and it is good to see we have most of our squad just stepping in, it is next man up.
“If you think about our performance tonight beating Wasps 45-7, the guys not available, if you go through that list we have such good squad depth and it is all about week to week and I am very happy with the level of continuity over the last few weeks.”
Munster were missing Dave Kicoyne, Niall Scannell, Jason Jenkins Joey Carbery and Damian de Allende, as well as RG Snyman on Sunday and still won pulling away against a side admittedly shorn of its two key ball carriers.
“Everybody knows how special the Champions Cup is to Munster. The interesting this is that I think it is the 29th of March until we see our international players, or everybody only sees their international players.
“I guess the interesting bit is that there is so much time between now and March and we will use in well in the High Performance Centre and we have got a game against Zebre, after that Edinburgh, and the Dragons and potentially a tour to South Africa.
“But from a Champions Cup point of view we’re really excited and it is going to be very unique in terms of a round of 16 and hopefully we have done well enough with our seeding, we are third. We can only control what we can and hopefully we can get through that and who knows what will happen after that. But a round of 16 it will be a massive challenge.”
Simon Zebo was a late call-up for Keith Earls, who van Graan reckoned would be fit for Ireland's opening Six Nations game against Wales along with David Kilcoyne, and his two tries took his tally in the competition to 34.
Van Graan also praised Zebo’s “unseen” work.
“I thought Zeeb’s kick off chases were excellent tonight, he really read that well. He is just being Zeebs, the finish off the lineout, welI off both lineouts. He just brings so much energy and he has got a real connection with the crowd. It is great to have him our team.
“Look he has been so unfortunate only playing two games, his second last game was the 15th of October and then he had the 14 minutes against Ulster so it was great to get an 80-minute performance about him.”
The Wasps flanker Thomas Young, who was stretchered off after a long stoppage, stayed in hospital pending more tests overnight.
“We will know a lot more tomorrow and the club will give a statement as soon as we know,” said Wasps head coach Lee Blackett.
