HEINEKEN CUP & RABODIRECT PRO12:Tuesday's highlights package has sharpened the focus of Munster's coach after a reminder of their minimal contribution to last season's Heineken Cup, writes GERRY THORNLEY

THERE IT was in all its glory – musically accompanied, stylish images of last season’s Heineken Cup, shown on two large screens as well as a monitor in front of the four Irish provincial captains. Rarely can there have been so little footage of Munster from a Heineken Cup campaign.

Not once in the last 13 years have the two-time winners and four-time finalists had to wait so long, fully 10 months, for a game in the competition. Munster coach and captain alike probably didn’t need a highlights package at Tuesday’s launch in Dublin to remind them that their contribution was unusually minimal.

“It certainly sharpens the mind when you watch a highlights tape of last year and you’re nowhere to be seen,” admitted Tony McGahan. “You’re seeing the opposition holding up a trophy, so if you needed a reminder of where you’re at and what gets you going, it was brilliant to be honest.”

Timely too, given they’re playing the European champions this Friday, though Tuesday’s enforced reminder meant McGahan and Paul O’Connell missed Munster’s training sessions.

“It doesn’t help before the biggest game in the calendar on the domestic scene with a sell-out crowd at the Aviva Stadium,” he noted with typical dryness.

McGahan admits the sight of Northampton welcoming back their World Cup returnees over the last two weekends forced his hand to some extent against Aironi last Friday, when starting six of Munster’s seven-man contingent who played in the quarter-final against Wales – the exception being Donncha O’Callaghan.

With his front-liners limited to a certain number of appearances over this eight-game window, he resolved to take the hit later in order to have his team better primed for the visit of a Northampton side who he has rated as one of the very best in Europe since their three meetings two years ago.

Asked how close he was to finalising his starting XV to play Northampton, he admitted: “Not that close. I’ve got a few places sorted, but not a clear 15 at this stage.” Thus, if there had to be one game to fast-track their readiness for a return to Europe, then, he admitted “there’s none better in the calendar”, adding: “I think that every time you see the clubs meet, the intensity is unmatched. It’s final’s rugby in a league competition, so it’s going to be beneficial to both groups.”

The ripple effect of Leinster’s 13-9 win in the corresponding fixture last season were significant.

Whereas, after one win in four beforehand, it launched a six-match winning sequence for Leinster, it ended Munster’s four-match winning start and precipitated an even costlier 23-17 loss in London Irish a week later.

“They dogged it out,” reflected McGahan on that 13-9 loss.

“We had some really good opportunities and we couldn’t get the ball across the line in the first half and they scored a try at 70 minutes. And there’s turning points like that in seasons. So we’re hoping that can be a turning point for us this season, to give us that real lift in confidence from playing away from home against a really good side.”

The post-mortem on Munster’s ensuing exit at the pool stages was long, detailed and painful. The memory of the defeat in Toulon is freshest, but the losses away to London Irish and the Ospreys, where their lineout and scrum in turn faltered badly, had left them behind the cue ball when facing an on-fire Toulon.

“The key for us is converting our opportunities,” says McGahan with last season in mind. “We left tries behind at London Irish, we left tries behind at the Ospreys, and there’s probably six (match) points which (you’d need) to qualify and give yourselves an opportunity of going further.

“Set-piece without a doubt is another key area, in particular our scrum. That’s a big one. I think the other one is getting a really strong balance between playing and not playing. But those things are right across every side in every competition. You’ve seen it at the World Cup. But we need to get those three rugby areas right.”

Munster, he reflects, gave away 20 points to London Irish off their own possession and on foot of the loss away to the Ospreys Munster resolved to sign Springbok tighthead BJ Botha from Ulster.

McGahan maintains their own stats have shown an improvement in the scrum both last season and again so far in this campaign. “More importantly on our own ball but in particular in putting pressure on opposition ball, and giving ourselves a platform to play off. It’s one thing about winning ball off set-piece but it’s another in getting quality ball to actually play off. That was the key for us.”

Botha has, he admits, been integral to that improvement, not only in his actual scrummaging but in providing leadership “as a figurehead in that position and also educating the other young props coming through. Stephen Archer has got a fantastic future at tighthead and it’s going to be of huge benefit (to him) having someone like BJ around.”

McGahan has something of a moral dilemma in that John Hayes, on 99, is one appearance away from becoming the first player in the Heineken Cup’s history to reach a century (with Ronan O’Gara another game behind). Put another way, he wouldn’t like to leave the Bull marooned on 99.

“No, I wouldn’t like to make that decision,” McGahan admitted with another wry smile. Hayes is on a short-term contract in the continuing absence of the injured Peter Borlase, and McGahan observed: “We’ve got four weeks of intense scrummaging, so certainly someone of John’s experience is going to be of huge benefit to us.” The inference clearly is that Hayes will reach the landmark next weekend against Northampton.

Munster’s successes through the noughties was in large part founded on a rich seam of backrowers from the AIL era, but with the retirements of Eddie Halvey, Anthony Foley and Alan Quinlan compounded by David Wallace’s long-term absence, the conveyor belt is now being tested like never before.

The late-developing James Coughlan, last season’s player of the year, has become a standard-bearer, and the cognoscenti expect great things of Peter O’Mahony, with much now falling on Denis Leamy to have a stellar campaign.

“It’s certainly a major part of the game with regard to presence within the game itself in the contact area, whether through carry, breakdown and clean,” admits McGahan. “But look, the players that you’ve just listed had to learn their trade and they were there for a long period of time to get to that point. They didn’t arrive there at that level, they learned that off each other and they learned that at the highest level, both winning and losing at home and away in big games.”

“We’re really confident with what we’ve got there. There’s certainly not the name player there, but it’s about getting the job done and we believe they can.”

At any rate, this campaign marks something of a watershed.