Maori All Blacks head coach Colin Cooper need only point to the four players he lost to Steve Hansen this week as evidence of the importance his own representative team has in the cause of New Zealand rugby.

The inclusion of seven players in Ireland’s 23-man squad against Canada tomorrow along with the absence of several others means that Munster will be severely depleted when they take on the powerful Maori All Blacks at a sold-out Thomond Park tonight.