RUGBY HEINEKEN EUROPEAN CUP: Gerry Thornleyon how the hooker and his colleagues have stepped up to the plate in the wake of the demoralising loss at home to Ulster

THE HARDER Munster tried, the worse things became, and an almost scary hush enveloped Thomond Park. You wondered if the players were as shocked as the rest of us at the sheer scale of Ulster’s 37-11 rout of the European champions in their citadel a fortnight ago.

“I think so, yeah,” admits hooker Jerry Flannery. “I think the thing for us was that you finally stopped and realised it was no blip. This was the culmination of poor performances that came together at home and getting trounced by Ulster.

“It kind of shocked everyone to realise that ‘look, this was not just a once-off result. We had better reassess’.”

Resilience and match-stealing comebacks against Montauban, the Scarlets and Clermont, had convinced Flannery and co they were winning ugly.

“But that had been masking that we weren’t really taking teams on as we should, and breaking them down; we were just scraping through. I think we needed to step up our game, not just on the pitch but on the training field, every where, with everybody just sharpening up a bit.”

Pre-season under the new Tony McGahan regime, which focused much more on ball work and skills from an earlier stage, had the squad straining at the leash but having begun the season with seven straight wins, Flannery admits Munster found it hard to gel after the November internationals.

Undoubtedly, Munster have had to play with much more ambition this season, with both their maul and pick-and-go games denuded by a combination of the ELVs and the crackdown on players going off their feet. It has even seemed as if a DVD of Munster’s pick-and-go endgame in the Heineken Cup final against Toulouse was sent to the referees as an example.

“Well, as far as I know, they were sent that video, weren’t they? That was given as an example of how to kill a game,” says Flannery. Wayne Barnes, in particular, seemed intent on penalising Munster at every breakdown in the Montauban game and Clermont away leg, but Munster showed signs of adapting in their sleeves-rolled-up win away to the Ospreys last week.

“What pleased me about the Ospreys game was that we effectively closed the game down with our forwards but we were quite careful how we did it with our pick-and-going. The referees have to ensure a contest for the ball, the second fella in can’t just seal it. But we’re getting better at that; when the first guy carries the ball the next guy in is trying to come through and clear the ball rather than stopping.”

Munster’s attempts at mauls early in both games against Clermont were illegally brought down, which is frustrating, but Flannery maintains that with the advent of Keith Earls and Ian Dowling along with their trio of high-class Kiwis, “we don’t have to rely on grinding teams down with, like, 200 rucks and then we get a penalty from Rog, or get a kick to the corner and then maul it in. If it had come in back in 2006 it could have seriously hurt us but we’ve tried to move away and broaden our game now”.

Yet Barnes was so harsh on Munster going through a few phases in their own half against a Montauban team that for 80 minutes created absolutely nothing that, like everyone else, they’ve also had to trim their ambition in running from their own half.

“That aerial ping-pong stuff is just so painful to watch,” admits Flannery, who maintains Munster are better when holding on to the ball and to that end, even from their own half, are trying to improve their pack’s work-rate.

Nor does Flannery have any truck with the theory that Thomond Park has somehow lost its atmosphere. “No, I don’t think so. Anybody who was at the Munster-All Blacks game, that’s as good a sporting occasion as I’ve been at. The atmosphere was unbelievable that day.

“It’s nothing to do with the actual structure of Thomond Park, or the people going into it. It’s about the players giving the crowd something to get behind,” he says, citing the example of an early score a la the Sale game three seasons ago.

Once again, Munster’s season is on the line in January, and as Flannery concedes, last week’s game and the upcoming two matches will define their season.

“It’s do-or-die, really. There’s no massive advantage to having beaten them already in the competition because whoever wins this one is in a very strong position. So, see how the conditions go and give it holly.”