RUGBY HEINEKEN CUP:TOO MUCH introspection isn't good for the soul so this week Donncha O'Callaghan has tried to look forward rather than dwell on last weekend's Magners League defeat to Leinster at the RDS. It hasn't been easy because when pride, professional and personal, enters the equation it's difficult to let go.
That's exactly, though, what Munster must do if they are to enter tomorrow evening's Heineken Cup pool match against Northampton at Franklin's Gardens in the right frame of mind. Coach Tony McGahan will whittle down a 27-man squad - the suspended John Hayes is the only front-line player missing - by four players.
"It's how you react to mistakes and disappointment, isn't it, no matter what your job is. If you learn from your mistakes, and granted it was a massive one against a team you don't want to not only lose to but underperform like we did, then it's about how we come back," said O'Callaghan.
"People never say anything but you're disappointed and you're ashamed of yourself in a way as well because you know what goes into supporting this team. To be fair everyone wants you to do well, no one is going to shout across the road, 'oh, you were useless'. Munster people aren't like that.
"But with the jersey you hold, you represent a lot more than that. You represented them for that day and you let them down, and that's the worst feeling you can have really, that you let someone down: be it your friends or family or team-mates."
He confirmed that training sessions have been conducted without a smile but made an interesting clarification when it was suggested that the players were taking out their frustrations on each other in training. O'Callaghan admitted: "There is huge respect among the squad. I think Brian Carney said it a few years ago, that it's wrong to hit a team-mate.
"We've gone away from stuff like that, which is hugely important because some of these fellahs are like heavyweights now and if you got a punch off some of them you'd be out for three weeks. You have to respect your team-mates, if you don't do that you might as well hang it up."
Seeking one final reference point from the RDS O'Callaghan accepted that Munster had been nowhere near as physical as they needed to be and it had permeated through every facet of their patterns from set pieces to general play. It is now time though to look forward. He said: "Sometimes you have bad days and it's how you react. We can't drag Leinster along with us into this weekend, we have to push on and learn the lessons of it which we have with Tony and Laurie and all the staff. But it's putting it into place on Saturday night." It'd probably be wrong to back against such an outcome.
MUNSTER SQUAD:M Horan, J Brugnaut; T Buckley, D Hurley, D Ryan, D Fogarty, J Flannery, D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, P O'Connell, D Ryan, D Leamy, N Ronan, D Wallace, N Williams, A Quinlan, T O'Leary, T Morland, P Stringer, R O'Gara, P Warwick, J de Villiers, L Mafi, D Howlett, I Dowling, D Hurley, K Earls.
