Assistant coach Mossy Lawler faced the media on Easter Monday and while dismissing the impact on the outcome of the Bulls fixture by a refereeing mistake that left Munster unnecessarily short-handed for 13 minutes of the second half he embraced both the challenges ahead and the playing squad’s capacity to right the wrongs of back-to-back defeats. A malfunctioning lineout was front and centre of both, a Champions Cup quarter-final exit at Bordeaux-Begles and seven days later in Limerick on their return to URC duty and the skills and assistant attack coach acknowledged there were remedies needed before boarding the plane for the Welsh capital. He also summoned the spirit of 2023 when Munster finished fifth at the end of the 18 rounds of league play and then won three knockout games away from home to lift the trophy. The fixes, he suggested, were well within the players’ capabilities and the group knew the time was nigh to start proving that title-winning pedigree. “Absolutely. We’re certainly not listening to outside noise,” Lawler said. “We know exactly what we are and where we are. We’re getting to the stage now where it is cup rugby and this club thrives on that. “We’re in a really good place here. A really good vibe around the place and we know where we’re falling down but we know where we’re really good as well so from that point of view we’re just looking forward to this week, putting our game, which we know we can produce, out on the pitch and going after Cardiff as best as possible.” As to the improvements within Munster’s control, Lawler added: “We’ll base it around our accuracies. Obviously focus on our lineout and attack launch, which gives us ins to the game but just around our general play. “We left a couple of opportunities out there against the Bulls, especially in the first half. We knew it would be a high-kicking game. But we kicked the ball 22 times in the first half and that would be a game average for us. “Now the game was always going to be like that but the fact that we made six really poor kick decisions in that, it is those small decisions that we are trying to get down into.” Munster, he said, would prevail if they stuck to the script and played to their potential. “Before I joined (from Connacht in the summer of 2023), this group won a URC playing with ambition and that has been our mantra. We are a possession-based team and we want to hold on to the ball and go after teams. “Obviously the last couple of weeks, we haven’t been as accurate as we have wanted to be but we certainly won’t be tightening us up. We have a hell of a lot of experience in the room who have played in massive games, bigger than what we will face in the next couple of weeks. So they will be leading the charge into being who we are, and sticking to who we are.” Lawler was also bullish on fixing the lineout in particular and insisted consulting forwards coach Alex Codling’s current sharing of time between his secondment at Munster and his day job with the Ireland women’s team was not a contributory factor to the current malaise. “It’s not been any excuse. If you look at the Bordeaux team we played, and certainly the Bulls too, Bordeaux are one of the best defensive lineout teams in Europe and if you make any inaccuracies there in your detail, they are going to pick you off. “It’s not ideal ever having any kind of coach away. But Alex is in constant contact with Tommy (O’Donnell) and his shot callers so from that point of view, there has been no stone left unturned. And there is a hell of a lot of experience in this group so I have no doubt we will get it right this weekend.”