Mike Phillips remained upbeat despite defeat in Limerick, insisting that the Ospreys are very much still in the hunt for a quarter-final place as attention turns to next weekend's return fixture against Munster at the Liberty Stadium.
Reflecting on a tough and physical afternoon at Thomond Park, Phillips said that with a big crowd guaranteed for the home game, and the Ospreys fans set to ‘Blackout’ their home, there is a lot to be positive about.
Speaking to the media post-match, the scrum half pointed to the areas where he felt that the game had been lost.
“They are a very streetwise side and coming out here is always going to be tough" he said.
“They get the crowd behind them and they influence the ref a lot. They wanted to kill the ball where we wanted to play, they just wanted to play the negative stuff.
“We didn’t score enough in the first half. There was a bit of a wind out there that was behind us and we didn’t capitalise on that enough. We didn’t do too much wrong in the first half though, saying that.
“We’re confident still, going into next week, that we can go out and get the win and stop them getting anything. We’ll maybe need to play with a bit more tempo. They like coming in from the side a lot and going off their feet at the rucks and hopefully the ref is going to pick that up next week and we can just play a bit.
“We’re definitely still in this. We love playing at home in front of our own crowd. They are going to be behind us, there’s going to be thousands there and it’ll be a great atmosphere.
“It’s sure to be a great occasion and hopefully we can do it for them. There’s a big promotion on for next week, we want everyone wearing black. I think it should be great. We owe it to them, they’ve been superb to us.”