Saturday 6 December 2014 22:53, UK
Munster captain Peter O'Mahony is looking for revenge after Clermont's historic 16-9 European Champions Cup win at Thomond Park.
Clermont became only the third team to beat Munster at home in almost 20 years of European rugby following in the footsteps of Ulster in 2012 and Leicester in 2007.
No 8 Fritz Lee put in a man-of-the-match performance for the French side and opened the scoring in the first few minutes with a superb try.
Wesley Fofana also touched down in the opening quarter, with Camille Lopez's penalty and drop goal making it 16-6 to the French giants.
Ian Keatley knocked over his third successful penalty but Munster were unable to cross the whitewash on a frustrating night for the two-time European Cup winners.
Munster must now regroup and get ready for the return fixture when they travel to Stade Marcel Michelin next weekend, and O'Mahony is relishing the chance to hit back straight away.
“We came up against an excellent side today,” he said.
“We knew it was going to be tough – and we knew from the day that this pool was announced that we were going to have it tough. I thought Clermont played very well but I thought we could have done a lot of things better.
“But it is half-time; that is the beauty of the back-to-back games and we can put it right next week. We have to go and dominate them physically; tonight we were bullied at times which is not something that normally happens at home.
“But as I said, we have got eight days to recover and eight days to put our best foot forward to train as hard as we can and to put ourselves in the best position to do the job.”
Munster head coach Anthony Foley bemoaned his side's "very poor start" as Clermont moved above them to the top of Pool 1.
"It was a very poor start from us. That allowed Clermont to get belief and obviously gave them five points (with Lee's try),” said Foley.
"From there, they grew into the game and we didn't get as physically into the game as we would have liked and some of that is turning over ball and not making good use of the ball, putting pressure on them. We soaked up a lot of pressure and ended up giving out points to them.
"We came into the game very confident to get a physical job done on them. We are not looking for excuses. Clermont were the better team here and we need to rectify that for next week. We need to be able to go over there and get one back.
"We've got to stay true to the badge that we're wearing and turn up next week. It's not a great feeling at the moment in the Munster camp so we need to rectify that.
"We just need to turn up and play. We didn't do that today. We made too many errors. We allowed them a good foothold in the game and they are good players.
"We have good players but you can't give those players front foot ball, an opportunity or a half-break. They make hay."
Meanwhile, Clermont boss Franck Azema was pleased with his side's defensive effort which gave them the platform for the club's second ever win on Irish spoil – they also beat Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in a December 2012 pool game.
"I'm happy, but we are only halfway. The first part is finished and the second part starts next week but it's a good position to be in", said Azema.
"We know in both games it is important to take maximum points but we are in a good position tonight – but when you see the last five minutes (when Munster came hard at us) and the score, we may be wary (of) next week.
"We were in a comfortable position to win the game (at half-time) but the last five minutes showed that it was not finished. Certainly next week we have a big game.
"Our defence was good, was strong. In the last five minutes we were able to control this and I'm very proud of the players because they give it their all in the last five minutes."
