Man of Match Keith Earls on Munster’s ‘massive’ Pro14 challenge at Leinster

MAN of the Match Keith Earls Munster face a ‘massive challenge’ against Leinster in the Guinness Pro14 semi-final at the RDS, Dublin on Saturday, May 19, 3.15pm,

Earls scored Munster’s crucial second try in their hard fought 20-16 play-off win over Edinburgh before an official attendance of 10,205 at Thomond Park on Saturday.

It is now seven seasons since Munster won a league title. The province was soundly beaten by the Scarlets in last season’s final at the Aviva Stadium.

Afterwards Earls said: “It has been a long time since Munster won a trophy. Look, we weren’t at our best against Edinburgh, we will go back and look at that next week.

“We know there is a massive challenge ahead of us in two weeks’ time (v Leinster), so hopefully we can make a few improvements for that game.

“At times we made it hard for ourselves against Edinburgh. Trying to get the exit we put pressure on ourselves with mistakes and we know Edinburgh are a good side.

“They played a pressurised game and they did that to us a small bit today, they took us out of our own gameplan, but thankfully, with a bit of experience, we pulled through.

“We spoke about how we could make each other look better and that was key today. If we gelled that together we would be hard to beat.

“It was a typical piece of Zebo magic in the lead up to the try. He pulled a kick out of nothing and thankfully he came left and he gave a lovely pass and I had a nice little run to the corner.