Ryan has been missing several first-choice players in recent weeks (Getty)

Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan wants more consistency from his players in this weekend's Heineken Cup quarter-final against Munster.

"We're not playing with a huge amount of fluency. I think that's an important thing that we need," he admitted to BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

Ryan hopes to field a settled team now the Six Nations is over.

"We've got an important game and then the Premiership is getting tighter so we've got to get going," he said.

"We've got to keep them together," he said. "They've been together for a week."

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Last weekend's defeat at Worcester was Gloucester's sixth in a row away from home, but Ryan feels that having his players together for a prolonged period will help improve matters on the pitch.

"Fluency comes with being with the same people week in week out and talking about things you've done well, and things you have't done so well.

"This is the first week. We'd like to have set it off with a win which would have given us a little bit of a boost but we'll have to get through as well as we can."