'Donncha O'Callaghan's comments were on the money' says Munster Rugby defence coach Denis Leamy

"Donncha O'Callaghan's comments were on the money about our performance in Italy. I saw his comments, someone had told me that he had a go at us and specifically went home and watched it and he was completely right."

This was Munster Rugby's defence coach Denis Leamy's reaction to the former Munster legends comments about the province's dismal display against Zebre last weekend. 

Speaking on RTÉ sport after the 42-33 defeat to Italian side Zebre, pundit O'Callaghan let his feelings be known about the Munster performance stating: "You don't want to take away from the fact that Zebre were full quality for it but it was totally unacceptable from Munster. They should be embarrassed by that performance."

The former second-rower made 268 appearances for Munster throughout his career. During that time Donncha played alongside the province's now defence coach Denis Leamy. 

Leamy spoke at the Munster Rugby press conference this afternoon about O'Callaghan's speech on RTÉ. He said: "I've known Donncha since I was eighteen and I have nothing but respect for him, he was a brother to me when I played with him and he said nothing that we don't know or didn't feel last Saturday. He said nothing that we didn't already say ourselves.

"Does it hurt? I think the hurt comes from how we were during that game. We want to remember the legacy that people like Donncha created and we want to build on that and when someone like him honestly calls out our actions over the weekend you put your hands up and say we have to do better, it wasn't good enough."

Munster won't have much time to look back and review their performance in Italy as they host Welsh-side Ospreys in Virgina Media Park in Cork this Saturday evening at 7:35pm, where they will try and right the wrongs of their shock defeat.