In the circumstances, the return of former captain Peter O'Mahony and a rested Tadhg Beirne is badly needed for Munster to turn a corner.

The IRFU’s performance director David Nucifora was happy to sign off on Snyman’s move to Dublin in one of his last big calls before handing over the reins to David Humphreys next June.

Quite how Munster find themselves one from the bottom of their Champions Cup pool will greatly exercise Graham Rowntree and his coaching group over the festive period.

Graham Rowntree's camp need to seriously look at their lack of control in the final quarter when they were guilty of playing too much rugby from deep. 

Make no mistake, La Rochelle have proved the bane of the Leinster players lives for three years now, especially with a certain Ronan O’Gara at the helm.

With their manhood being questioned early on and Leinster drawing a line in the sand, it was inevitable that a serious bust-up would ensue. 

In its latest guise, with four of the six teams emerging from pools and advancing to the Round of 16, it’s harder not to make the knockout phase than to exit the tournament

Best estimate suggest that, even with  Cork GAA receiving a decent rent for the stadium, Munster could pocket an additional €350,000 by staging their St Stephen's Day game against Leinster in Cork.

An inevitable side effect of the increase in player size when the professional game was finding its feet from 2000 onwards was the rising incidence of concussions.

What South Africa have reminded everyone over the course of the last two months is that it requires a super human effort, coupled with a bit of good fortune, to win a World Cup. That doesn’t mean we should stop dreaming.