“I’ve had a few bad experiences with teams over in Italy in my career,” Foley said.

“We knew it was going to be a hard four points to get and we needed to front up physically and I thought we did that.”

“It could have been a larger margin, we were kicking ourselves after the game with our discipline.”

Despite denying a crisis in the wake of a leaked confidential report to players, added to new signing Tyler Bleyendaal's injury and Robin Copeland’s lost passport, Foley was all smiles at training on Monday.

Paul O’Connell missed the weekend’s game in Italy due to personal reasons but he is now looking good for selection for this weekend’s Pro 12 clash with Zebre at home.

A few more players will be returning from injury and pre-season and Foley should have a much stronger squad to choose from this week.

“We are getting to the stage where it’s getting very competitive in the squad,” he said.

“It’s at a point now where we have seven academy lads in and around our squad learning how to prepare for a season and what it takes, which is good.

“They are also seeing what the big boys are doing so it’s an interesting time in the squad.”

The Munster coach is remaining cautious about some tricky fixtures coming up, but is denying that he already has his eye on the big inter-pro clash with Leinster next month at the Aviva Stadium.

“We took a look at Zebre against Ulster, it could have been a hell of a lot closer,” he said.

“They’re a good physical side and you can’t take your eyes off them.

“We have Ospreys the week after so they are coming thick and fast and we are hoping to build on the momentum we got in Treviso.

“The most important thing now is Zebre this week in Thomond Park and we want it to be an intimidating atmosphere and we need to build a fortress there again.”