'There's no doubt we're hurting' - Munster parking painful derby defeat as they turn towards Exeter

Munster senior coach Stephen Larkham says the pain of losing to Leinster doesn't get any easier with familiarity.

The URC Champions inflicted another defeat on their southern neighbours last week with a 34-19 win at Thomond Park, moving 10 points clear at the top of the table, and denying Munster the chance to climb up to second place.

It's a 14th Leinster win from 17 renewals of the Interpro', with Munster losing six of the seven meetings between the sides since Larkham's arrival in 2019, while they will face each other at least once more before the end of this campaign.

Given Leinster's dominance in the fixture, some have suggested the rivalry is no longer what it once was, contributing to the disappointing attendance of 20,657.

Senior coach Larkham stressed the need for the squad and management to put Saturday's defeat behind them as they prepare for this weekend's Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 first leg with the Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park.

However, he added that doesn't mean they aren't still bruised by another loss against their near rivals.

"I mean, Leinster are top of the table at the moment so you're always challenging yourself against those teams, and you want to mark yourself against those teams, no different to other competitions around the world.

"The Leinster-Munster rivalry has always been there, so that's kind of a seperate one, but when Leinster are on top and we're not on top, yeah, we kind of feel... we're extremely disappointed in the game.

"Maybe I haven't expressed that enough. We've had a really good review, a real honest look at ourselves.

"And yeah, we're hurting, there's no doubt we're hurting. But we've got to move on. That's the game that we're in. It's a high performance, pressure environment