Hurley backs Penney's expansive style of play

The former Canterbury coach places emphasis on getting the ball wide with every attack, in a style that helped lead Penney's former side to four consecutive ITM Cup titles.

With Munster currently sitting third in the RaboDirect PRO12 standings having just inflicted a first league defeat of the season on rivals Ulster, things are looking good for the Red Army.

And Hurley, who won his 100th cap in the 24-10 victory over Ulster, believes that Penney's attacking approach will pay off in the long-term for the Munstermen.

"At times we were getting it right and I think we are getting a lot better at being able to judge the times when we need to keep it tight in the forwards or let it out wide," Hurley told the Irish Independent.

"We've shown that we can really cut teams apart with this game plan. I think at times we haven't fully executed it properly.

"We saw flashes of it in the second half against Ulster where we really did start to open up a strong defence and we picked off a couple of scores from it.

"A lot of it is about stretching defences and putting them under as much pressure as possible and letting them make mistakes that will open up holes for us to exploit."

And with Munster set to host eighth-placed Cardiff Blues at Musgrave Park on Saturday, Hurley is aware that his side must perform for the full 80 minutes to continue to churn out results.

"Saturday against Cardiff is going to be all about making sure that we get our gameplan together and put in a good performance," added the 28-year-old.

"The last couple of games we haven't gone the full 80 in terms of putting teams under pressure and getting points out of them, and I think that will be our main focus for next weekend."