Leamy: 'There's always that pressure to go and deliver'

A backs-to-the-wall week for Munster. Denis Leamy has experienced his fair share of them.

After Sunday's defeat to Toulouse at Thomond Park, they travel to Northampton this weekend needing to pull a result out of the bag to get back on track in the Heineken Champions Cup.

Getting back on track has been a running theme this season.

"It's kind of felt like that for, I suppose, the last three or four months to be honest with you," says Leamy, about the pressure surrounding this Sunday's game.

He admits there's plenty of pressure. That's just Munster.

"It's always been like that. It was always backs against the wall, proper pressure applied from in-house for these big European days.

"Every time you go out and represent Munster, it's a big day. And there is always that pressure. That pressure, and it's a good pressure may I add, coming from the fans and from in-house as well.

"There is always that pressure to go and deliver a performance, and it's about performance. It really is. It's about us getting the process right, we have started the week well now, in terms of day-to-day building into that big game on Sunday.

"We need to deliver individual performances feeding into the collective. Look, we take confidence. We are really looking forward to this game. It's another great challenge for us. It's a big game and we wouldn't want it any other way."

Munster and Northampton had a ding-dong rivalry back in Leamy's playing day. The seed had been planted at Twickenham in 2000, when the Saints edged past Declan Kidney's side in the province's first final appearance, but it blossomed between 2010 and 2012, when they drew each other twice in three seasons in the pools, as well as meeting at Thomond Park in a quarter final in 2011.

Leamy even