Fear the key to Munster improvement says Paul O’Connell

Paul O’Connell spoke about the galvanising properties of fear that, when properly harnessed, can propel a team from a low point of defeat and disappointment to the heady heights of victory in a short timeframe.

Munster's stand-in captain – he took over when Peter O'Mahony went off injured at Thomond Park on Saturday –- was trying to explain how the team went from losing to Leinster to a thumping victory over Toulouse.

“Fear plays a big part in it. We were really, really poor and disappointing last weekend. That heightened the sense of fear amongst the players and the staff coming into today. And you could see it from the supporters as well.

"It's rare the stadium is that full for such an early kick-off. Players feed off that. The supporters play a big role. You see Toulouse jerseys, the four stars, the only team to win it four times. Those traditional Heineken Cup teams bring the best out of us.

Great landscape
"I just felt last week we were toothless at times (against Leinster the previous weekend) and we couldn't get the ball off them. It's not a great landscape to go into a match against Toulouse. I felt we got shut out last week and it was a tough place to be. Confidence was low during the Leinster game and this week after it. It's hard to know where that performance came from. It's always there; we're just not capable of producing it week in and week out.

“Sometimes you just need to remind yourself of how good you can be when you get your heads right. When we do a few of the simple things right, which we did early on, the mauls, the lineout success, the scrum penalties, Keatley getting his kicks, you’d be surprised at how those things accumulate into something much bigger.”

He also paid tribute to CJ Stander, the South African came on for the unfortunate O’Mahony (probable dislocated shoulder) and in 60 minutes won the man-of-the-match award. “He’s (Stander) been disappointed with selection all year but he’s a role model in how to deal with that.

“He stays positive and trains hard. I’m delighted for him; he’s everything you want for a foreign player . . . . A lot of the guys who were disappointed for Peter were thrilled for him: it’s an eye opener for the rest of the squad to stay positive and train as hard as you can.

"Peter will be a massive loss for us, a brilliant captain and a brilliant leader. He's a no nonsense way of doing things. He leads aggressively from the front in every way, a great lineout option. He's going to be a huge loss but go back to Declan Kidney, every injury is an opportunity for someone else and players can respond like CJ did today."

For O'Connell the key going forward is to consistently produce those high-grade performances and if they can do that then there is no ceiling to what Munster can achieve.