Munster’s shortcomings against the Bulls in Limerick at the weekend were familiar ones, with try-scoring chances spurned and continuing problems at the lineout yet Coombes, who missed the game due to an ankle injury sustained in the previous Saturday’s European quarter-final loss at Bordeaux-Begles, believes concerns that his team are in danger of missing out on the necessary top-eight finish for the URC knockout rounds and qualification for next season’s Champions Cup are misplaced. Munster’s fate is in their own hands with home fixtures against Ulster and Benetton to follow this Friday’s road trip to the Arms Park and belief within the camp is absolute, the back-rower said as he referenced the title-winning heroics of two seasons ago. “I don’t think we’re out of the competition yet, are we?” asked Coombes, who is set to return against Cardiff. “We are still going to challenge for the title if we can. “We’ve got to get in the top eight. When we won it we came fifth and won away every game, so why can’t we do that again? “We’ve beaten a very good La Rochelle team in Europe and Bordeaux, we saw glimpses of where we put them to the sword, so I think to say we’re a long way off it is completely wrong. “I believe in this group and we have been off it on a few occasions during the season and a few games but when we’ve been on it we’ve had some great days and some great performances. “There’s a lot of belief in this group that we have the talent to challenge for the league and that’s definitely what we’re speaking about.” Coombes has taken a lot of positives from Munster’s last three games, all against ultra-physical heavyweight packs and believes the pressure his fellow forwards have come under from La Rochelle, Bordeaux and the Bulls will stand to them across the rest of the campaign. “I felt our scrum was probably the best it’s been in a long time, over in France for those two weeks. When you look at the calibre of players we were put up against I think Josh Wycherley did a phenomenal job, and Oli (Jager), and everyone else that was involved. “I think that will stand to them and lineout, D-wise, against La Rochelle and Bordeaux, there were a lot of threats there and we did quite well I thought, against them. “So definitely for the forwards it’s been a huge test for us the last three weeks and I feel like we’ve grown as a group so it’s definitely been good for us.” There was also frustration from the Bulls defeat, however, which Coombes also acknowledged. “We’ve reviewed it and probably small things that we didn’t get right so that’s frustrating for us but I don’t think you can fault the effort that we had on the pitch. Defensively we were defending on our own line quite a lot in that first half and putting in big shots, turning those over. “Probably unfortunate with a few things that happened in the game but I don’t think we can fault anyone for effort and attitude. We probably didn’t play the conditions right in the second half and take our opportunities when they came in the first half. “That would have been my assessment of it and obviously aspects around the lineout we need to get right, and things like that. “I think everyone realises this is a huge week so it’s not one where we can come in (on Monday) and feel sorry for ourselves and waste a day. We’ve got a six-day turnaround, we’re playing Friday evening, we need everyone on it and we needed to get out of today what we could get out of today. “So I think everyone had it parked by the time we came in, we had a quick review and spoke about what we can work, you know, small moments where the game got away from us. “The mood in the camp is good, we’ve a day off (on Tuesday) so everyone is able to get away from rugby and refresh and we’ll come in on Wednesday and have another good day and be all set for Friday.”