Jack O'Donoghue has hailed the appointment of 'passionate' new Munster boss Graham Rowntree as he vows the Reds will give their all to make the Champions Cup last eight.
O'Donoghue, who skippered the province in the absence of Peter O'Mahony at Sandy Park last Saturday, points to the TV clip of Rowntree reading the riot act to Munster's forwards as evidence of what the Reds means to him.
"Very passionate, I think you saw that from that little two second clip," said O'Donoghue.
"He’s incredibly passionate about the game, about the scrums, about the breakdown, about the nitty-gritty stuff.
"Yeah, he gave us a bit of a kick up the hole but the messages after that were really calm and composed.
"While that’s something you saw in that little snippet, after that the messaging and stuff we were very calm and composed, and we knew exactly what we needed to change and what we needed to do when we were out there.
“Graham is an incredible character to have around the place.
"He’s well able to identify when you’re maybe a bit down and knows exactly how to pick a player up and to motivate a player.
"Certainly around selection and maybe they’re having a tough time with form and stuff, he’s a good man to put an arm around a player and bring him along.
"I think that’s just the vibe around the place and I think that’s why players do speak so highly of him.”
Exeter take a five point lead to Thomond Park on Saturday and so Munster, who hope to have a number of big names back, need full commitment to produce another famous European victory.
"Look, it’s knockout rugby for us now and we are going to give it our best," said the experienced O'Donoghue.
"Thomond Park - just thinking about it, you get that buzz, you're going to feel the crowd but we can’t let that get the better of us. We have to stay on task.
"We know exactly what we have to do. We have to stay calm and stay composed and when the whistle goes that we hit the ground running and we really go at them from the start."
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