O'Connell keeps Munster's feet on the ground
Despite inflicting a record Heineken Cup defeat on the Opsreys in a one-side quarter-final at a red-hot Thomond Park, home skipper O'Connell was still taking one step at a time in his team's defence of the title.
"It was a good day and we played well. But we're only in the semi-finals, and we've been there a few times, and nothing is won in the Magners League," said O'Connell.
"So, we've won nothing yet and we've just go to do what Munster do and concentrate on ourselves.
When you start to worry about other people and what they say or think then you can start to become a bit shaky."
There was certainly nothing shaky about Munster's 43-9 demolition job of the Ospreys. They out thought and out fought them all over the park to earn rich plaudits from their opponents.
"It is difficult to come to terms with what has happened. We came with the right game plan, but our execution wasn't what we would have liked it to be," said Ospreys skipper Ryan Jones.
"When you get behind to a team like Munster you have to try to play yourself out of trouble. The only problem with that is you can often end up playing yourself into more trouble."
Ospreys coach Sean Holley looked shell-shocked after the match and said his team would need to take a long hard look at themselves.
"Munster were outstanding. We saw a champion team out there against us," he said.
"We didn’t see that coming and we weren't able to cope with them. We didn't bring our 'A' game with us today and they dominated most areas of the game.
"Nothing went our way and we are disappointed we didn't have more fight in the second half. We will have to go home and take a long hard look at ourselves."
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O'Connell keeps Munster's feet on the ground
