Saints attack is 'really pretty scary', says Munster defence coach Leamy

A mouthwatering match-up is in store at Thomond Park on Saturday evening as Munster host Phil Dowson's men in Investec Champions Cup Pool 3.

Saints are currently top of the standings, having already secured a home last 16 tie, but they want to secure victory to win the pool and make sure that they would have a home quarter-final should they make it that far.

Munster can still finish second if they bag a bonus-point success and Exeter Chiefs lose at Bayonne on Sunday afternoon.

That means there is plenty on the line in the final Pool 3 match.

And Leamy has been steeling his side to face a Saints team who he admires greatly.

"We've played them twice and this will be the third time in the last year," said Leamy, who helped to steer Munster to a double against Saints in the Champions Cup pool stages last season.

"We know them quite well but what I would say is they've moved to another level around all aspects of their game.

"They’re a better team again than what we played last year.

"Their attack is class. It’s really, really good.

"Their speed of ball, you know, quickest ruck in the Premiership. How we deal with that, how we manage that will be really important because they’ve got such quality.

"Just even take their middle segment of their team. They’ve (Courtney) Lawes, (Tom) Pearson, (Juarno) Augustus, you’ve got (Alex) Mitchell who runs everything for them, he’s a brilliant conductor, Fin Smith, and (Rory) Hutchinson, the Scottish lad.

"They’re quality, just brilliant attacking rugby players.

"Their attack is really pretty scary to be honest with you.

"It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen an attack that’s choreographed and put together, really well put together."

Munster go into this weekend's game on the back of a morale-boosting success at Toulon last time out.

And Leamy told RTE: "I was really pleased.

"Analysing Toulon coming into the game, they had lots of threats and especially against the French sides, you're talking about how you manage their power.

"They obviously had a lot of Polynesian influence and you just see the explosive power they can generate. So I was pleased, I was really pleased how we dealt with them around the contact zone.

"We got involved in a lot of battles, we stripped them on a number of occasions, we win some vital turnovers in the poach, so I thought structurally to allow us to do that was good.

"Around the contact game and winning the gainline, I thought we were pretty good. I was very pleased with a lot we did.

"We fell off a lot of tackles, our tackle completion was 83 per cent which was down from the last three games where we hit 96 per cent against Exeter, 95 per cent against Leinster.

"Our tackle completion was really strong but the only thing I'd say about that is that we're a linespeed pressure team.

"We're not about sitting on the line, keeping our integrity and making tackles. We want to apply pressure through our linespeed, through our contacts.

"So even though we may have fallen off a tackle or two, there was always someone there to make the next one. That's the important thing, that we take that space."