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Rowntree: Munster 'hardened' by poor start to season

Graham Rowntree believes Munster's slow start to the season has toughened them up, and they're starting to reap the rewards for sticking to their plan.

After five defeats from their first seven games, the province found themselves in a major battle to secure Champions Cup rugby next season, but after a morale-boosting victory against a South Africa Select XV during the Autumn Nations Series window, they've followed it up with back-to-back bonus point wins in the URC to bring themselves back into the top half of the table.

And with their season now moving back on an upwards trajectory, they can give it an even greater boost in the coming weeks, starting with this Sunday's Heineken Champions Cup opener against Toulouse at Thomond Park (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).

The recent wins have given us a glimpse into the attacking shape Mike Prendergast has been licensed with implementing, while we've also seen them use their maul as a weapon in both attack and defence.

But Rowntree says he also believes his side have become calloused by their struggles early in the campaign.

"I think we're better for the experience, we had a tough start to the league," he said.

"We weren't a million miles off. I mean if we lost, they had only just beaten us. A lot of things was…we were killing ourselves around downfall, where we were getting used to a new way of doing things.

"But I think we are hardened for it, if that’s an expression I can use, we are hardened for those experiences."

And Rowntree (above) confident they won't revert back into their sluggishness from the start of the season.

"I don't think we will fall back into our old ways. I think we learned a lot trying to get a new style going on the field, a new way of training; we’ve learned a lot,

Read more on rte.ie