JACK Crowley was satisfied that Munster got their Champions Cup campaign back on track with a win against Gloucester at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but feels more will be needed in the battles ahead.

Munster headed into Saturday night’s historic European rugby debut at the home of Cork GAA after a chastening away loss to Bath the previous weekend.

They needed a response, and gave it, eventually securing a bonus-point 31-3 win with a five-try performance that warmed up the 36,208 who braved the wind and the cold.

‘That’s what we wanted: to get a reaction to last week,’ explained Innishannon man Crowley who had missed the 40-14 loss to Bath through injury.

‘We were disappointed and we felt we let people down, so this was about a reaction. I think we got some of that.

‘I still don’t think, going forward, it will be a performance (good enough) for the opposition down the line, but it was good enough for today.’

Munster struggled to get going at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but had their noses in front at the break, leading 7-3. Dan Kelly with the Munster try, Crowley adding the conversion.

In the second half, Mike Haley, Ruadhán Quinn, Tom Farrell and Tadhg Beirne all scored second-half tries for Munster, with Crowley adding two more conversions. Skibbereen man Gavin Coombes played the full game with Bantry’s Josh Wycherley coming on in the second half.

For Munster, it was job done, but they know more is needed.

‘We’re happy to get ourselves on the scoreboard in terms of the European Cup stuff, but I think we'll probably wake up in the morning or even now, and know that we could have been a lot better,’ head coach Clayton McMillan said.

He added: ‘The positive is we got the five points and that was the target, and we got the job done. But as I said, we left a lot of points out there, and that's the part that would be a bit frustrating for us in terms of our conversion.

‘You know, we weren't very clinical when we had the opportunity to be, and the game could have been over a lot earlier than it was. And that's what we'll be looking at to improve on.

‘But we kept them scoreless other than the three points, so that's a big positive too.’

Next up for Munster in Europe is a trip to Toulon on January 11th.