Just 27 months after his playing career was cut short, Felix Jones is developing quite the reputation as an innovative attack coach. Speculation of offers abound but Jones is keen to deflect the limelight and focus on adding more strings to Munster’s bow.

Rassie Erasmus jetted home to South Africa last night confident that Munster are in safe hands with his replacement, Johann van Graan.

As he reflects on his latest honour, newly-crowned Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland Player of the Year Conor Murray is also wary of the dangers of admiring his work for too long.

There will be more searching examinations this season of Munster’s Guinness PRO14 title credentials than those posed by Benetton Rugby last Friday in Cork but as opening-night performances go, there was much from which Rassie Erasmus could take pleasure.

Amid all the hoopla about Peter O’Mahony’s captaincy of the Lions is the salient point that in sport, as in life, timing is everything. 

VERY few causes have brought the people of the six counties of Munster together like the province’s rugby team.

If Niall Scannell ever needs a reality check about what real pressure feels like, he and his Munster team-mates do not need to search too far back in the memory banks.

Benetton Treviso v Munster: We know what Connacht have done to us, while Treviso have been overturning teams like Ospreys and Edinburgh.

Zebre 7 Connacht 52: Two rounds played in the Champions Cup and only three teams in Europe have chalked up two wins. No surprise that Saracens and Clermont Auvergne have begun in such stellar fashion, but Pat Lam’s men are beginning to show that their historic PRO12 win might not be a one-hit wonder.

There are growing fears Luke Fitzgerald is about to announce his retirement from rugby due to injury.

He might not be the finished article quite yet but within the Ireland camp there is a strong feeling that Paddy Jackson is well on the way to proving himself a genuine rival for Johnny Sexton in the chase for the green number 10 jersey.

For Conor Murray, the thought of having to watch Connacht and Leinster duke it out in a Guinness Pro12 final this Saturday fills him with frustration.

Head coach Anthony Foley declared he was prepared to walk away from Munster if he felt he could no longer inspire winning performances from his players.

Versatile Munster forward Billy Holland believes the hard-fought 9-7 win in Belfast at the weekend can help turn their season around.

Months before the commencement of battle, Munster head coach Anthony Foley has forewarned his troops that nothing will come easy in Pool 4 of the European Champions Cup.

Eoin Reddan believes Ireland can be more assured about what they will bring to the table at the World Cup in England later this year than was the case in New Zealand in 2011 or France eight years ago.

Barbarians head coach Robbie Deans will go head to head with compatriot Joe Schmidt at Thomond Park on Thursday night believing his invitational side are set to face genuine World Cup contenders.

Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy has been given a handful of games to prove he is worth being given a World Cup swansong after announcing he will retire at the end of this autumn’s tournament in England.

It’s no secret that my Ireland career didn’t end the way I would have liked, and if this week is the end for Gordon D’Arcy, it’s certainly not how he would have wanted to finish up either.

When you’re barely taller than a postbox, you get used to all-comers trying to knock you down, and that’s why Shane Williams isn’t queuing up to give Ireland’s tactics a kicking.

Conor O’Shea wasn’t having any of it.

Jared Payne has spent the grand total of two days with Joe Schmidt’s Ireland set-up but the Ulster back has already made considerable inroads in the race to replace Brian O’Driscoll as the side’s resident 13.

Gordon D’Arcy can be an expansive talker, a man who thinks about a question and his answer before offering a considered opinion on the topic of the moment, but pre-season teaches you to treat every breath as precious.

INTERNATIONAL TEST:

Former Ireland flanker Alan Quinlan has spoken of his surprise at the decision to bring Jonathan Sexton on tour to Argentina and expressed hope that Joe Schmidt wraps his fly-half in kid gloves for the duration.

Matt O’Connor has challenged Ian Madigan to reach another level while admitting the uncertainty over who to start at out-half has affected Leinster’s performances since life after Jonathan Sexton.

Leinster 13 Ulster 9

Strange how history repeats itself.

For a full decade now, the Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy midfield axis has survived and thrived in the pell-mell that is international rugby but the durable duo are on borrowed time.

Nick Williams has signed a new two-year contract extension with Ulster, keeping him at Ravenhill until the summer of 2016.

Highlights include Colin Stafford Johnson's new series on the Shannon, and highly-rated new spy drama The Americans.

Ulster’s John Afoa will start at tighthead in the only change to the starting XV that defeated the Scarlets a fortnight ago for tomorrow's RaboDirect PRO12 Final against Leinster at the RDS (4.45pm).

Cian Healy isn’t one for cracking under questioning.

The Leinster management must contend with a number of injuries arising from Friday's Amlin Challenge Cup victory, as they prepare for Saturday's RaboDirect PRO12 final in the RDS against Ulster (4.45pm).

Concerns over Brian O’Driscoll’s fitness heading into a Lions summer were reduced yesterday following Joe Schmidt’s assertion that the centre is expected to be fit for Leinster’s RaboDirect PRO12 final against Ulster tomorrow week.

All that remains now is the timing.

A major redevelopment at the home of Ulster Rugby will get under way later this month after the club secured almost £15m (€18.7m) of promised British Government funding.