European defeats happen when 'we completely lose the run of ourselves' - Munster's Calvin Nash

Munster, once European royalty, haven't made a dent in the Champions Cup since 2021.

By the time they won their second Heineken Cup in 2008, only Toulouse had more titles, but since then, they have never been past a semi-final and have been left in the slipstream of dear rivals Leinster.

After Paul O’Connell lifted the trophy in the Millennium Stadium following victory over Toulouse 16 years ago, Munster have lost seven semi-finals, two quarters, three last-16 games and failed to qualify for the knockouts on four occasions.

It’s been a relatively steady decline with three semi-final defeats in a row between 2017 and 2019, followed by a pool-stage exit, three last-16 losses and a quarter-final defeat on penalties to Toulouse in 2022.

The last two years in Europe have been meek, with Munster winning just three of 10 games, including two heavy knockout defeats to Northampton and Sharks.

Ireland wing Calvin Nash scored two tries in five of those matches and feels that Munster’s downfall has been games where they "completely lose the run of ourselves".

Last season’s draw against Bayonne, and defeats to Saints and Exeter, all from winning positions, spring to mind.

"I think it’s been inconsistent 80-minute performances," said Nash, who helped Munster to a 33-7 opening-round win over Stade Francais last weekend.

"You think back and we’re probably not losing games by massive margins.

"It will be, say 15 minutes in the second half where we completely lose the run of ourselves and stop playing our game plan or go off script, and leave other teams back in the game, or else we don’t have a good start and are chasing the game.

"They are the times that I see us starting to lose games.

"If we can have a consistent 80-minute performance we’ll have