PETER O’MAHONY feels Munster ticked a lot of boxes going into next Friday’s European Champions Cup game in their win over Connacht.

The Reds went back to basics in their lineout and mauls and it paid dividends as Munster finished their PRO14 block on top of Conference A.

“It is always something, not giving away any secrets, our mauls are very important for us. 

"It’s something that probably hadn’t functioned over the last five or six weeks,” said O’Mahony. 

“It was good to see some of the work that we put in in the last couple of weeks coming through, but it is an ongoing process.” 

Munster’s malfunctioning lineout saw them cough up potential scores in games during December but that was also put to right last weekend and that will be vital heading to Kingsholm on Friday he reckons.

“We certainly have done a bit of work on [the lineout]. I was happy with the way it went at the weekend. 

"I think we had 100% ball-winning, which was a good start and our maul certainly functioned a bit better last weekend, but there is always room to improve. 

"We got caught high a couple of times, there were a couple of inaccuracies, a couple of deliveries that we can get better, but it was certainly positive for us.”

“It was nice to be back in. After a couple of booster weeks, I was looking forward to getting back playing. 

"There was a great buzz on Monday coming back into a European week and that’s always a good sign.” 

Munster will be keeping their fingers crossed that O’Mahony recovers from a bang on the hip last Saturday in Galway a minor knock that did not detract from the benefits of those “booster weeks”.