Munster seeing 'big improvements' as Test stars return

Munster forwards coach Andi Kyriacou says there are "heaps" of positives they can take despite their Round 1 defeat to Cardiff in the BKT United Rugby Championship.

The province opened up their campaign with a 20-13 defeat to the Welsh side on Saturday, having been outscored by three tries to one.

It was the first competitive game under the new coaching team of Graham Rowntree, Mike Prendergast, Denis Leamy and Kyriacou, with a largely second-string side outscored by three tries to one.

In recent weeks, the coaching team have stressed the rebuild will take some time, while that was echoed by Bernard Jackman last night on RTÉ's Against the Head.

However, forwards coach Kyriacou maintains a lot of last week's errors at the Arms Park were individual mistakes which can be quickly ironed out, ahead of Sunday's return to Wales when they take on Dragons.

"The breakdown stuff, we can immediately address, as we were challenged well by Cardiff there," the Englishman said.

"But some of the pattern work, we're seeing massive improvements through the summer in pre-season games and into Round 1. There are big improvements within those three games. What we expect is to keep improving and it's always going to be a long-term thing, that we keep pushing ourselves on and testing each other.

"The way we're training is designed to stress the players, so it will inevitably take time and we should see improved performances as we move through.

"We understand as a group that there are areas individually we all need to work on and sharpen up on. That'll come the more we play together. We'll get our timings together and we'll get that feel of what players will do instinctively as well, and how we can support that. That'll definitely add to more accuracy