John Mulvihill hopes that truth hurts – and that it will be Munster who feel the pain at the Arms Park on Friday night.
The Cardiff Blues coach has revealed his players held a “truth session” in the aftermath of their third successive defeat last week.
Mulvihill says he was encouraged by the response of his squad to their winless start to the Guinness Pro 14 season and that the frenzy he witnessed in training will be unleashed on their Irish opponents.
The Australian – under pressure already to find his first victory in charge at the club – saw the Blues cough up winning positions in the final quarter against Leinster, Benetton Rugby and Zebre. His two Italian jobs were blown in the dying moments.
But after a big ‘truth session’ on their return to the Welsh capital this week the Blues are ready to muscle up against Munster in order to get their season back on track after a disastrous start.
“We played some really good rugby in both games in Italy, but we let ourselves down physically, especially against Zebre. That’s something we need to rectify,” said Mulvihill.
“It is not something that comes from the coach, or through a week of preparation, it is something that comes out internally on the night. We are looking to make sure we bring that physicality and intensity against Munster.
“It’s a big challenge against a championship side like Munster. We know we are going to have to be at our very best to win.
“We’ve had a six day turn around as well, so there hasn’t been any time to dwell on last weekend. We’ve just got to get on with it.”
A 78th minute try and conversion earned Leinster a 33-32 win at the Arms Park in the opening game of the season and then Benetton snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with an 83rd minute try and conversion to earn an unlikely 27-25 triumph.
It was a similar story against Zebre where the Blues this time blew a 21 point lead. Two tries in the final 10 minutes from Blues turn overs, the latter two minutes from time, earned the Italians a 26-24 victory.
“We had a ball in play time of 40 minutes against Leinster, yet the Italians dragged us down to 28 and 30 minutes and slowed the tempo right down. It is up to our leaders and game managers to ensure we keep the speed in our game,” added Mulvihill.
“A classic example of that came with 11 minutes to go against Zebre when we were leading by four points. We went for a driving maul on half-way when we hadn’t done that all year.We should have been looking to get some pace into our game, so we’ve had a good chat about that this week.
“We have got to keep the speed in the game because Munster will come here and be set-piece orientated and try to play the game at their pace. If you get into an arm wrestle with teams who are good at those things, that’s when you fall apart.”
Blues skipper Ellis Jenkins will make his 100th appearance for the region, while Macauley Cook is in line for his 150th game. Mulvihill wants the team to give them both a reason to celebrate
“Munster were good last week, but weren’t possibly so good against Glasgow. We know they are going to bring the physicality and that’s something we have lacked in the last few weeks,” he added.
“If we don’t bring it we know it is going to be a tough night. The review we had this week wasn’t for the faint hearted, it was pretty tough.
“Coming out of that they ripped into each other in training – just as they had done in the review.
They are really focussed on Friday night. Ready for the fight and they love playing at the Arms Park.”
