The Ulster website offered a taster of how the other province lives on Monday, with the club about to send out a welcome update to their fans ahead of a huge week of European rugby.

Johann van Graan was left counting the casualties as he turned his focus towards this Friday’s visit to Ulster having lost more players to injury in the 13-6 home defeat to Leinster on Saturday.

Johann van Graan hopes Joey Carbery will play his first game for Munster this season when they take on Leinster at Thomond Park on Saturday.

We were up in the wildish Scottish yonder last Saturday when this kerfuffle at Saracens broke out.

"It’s good but it can be intimidating and if you’re not expecting it, it’s a very challenging place to go."

Ask any Munster supporter their thoughts on the Saracens personnel coming to Thomond Park this evening and they will take the matchday squad named by Mark McCall yesterday in a heartbeat. Ask the Munster coaching group the same question and they will not be taking anything for granted.

Andrew Conway’s regular note-taking should be a more than pleasurable task these days.

Munster head coach Johann van Graan was keen to talk up the positives from his side’s home defeat to Edinburgh last Friday, but also reiterated that losing a home fixture was not something to be celebrated.

If JJ Hanrahan is looking for anyone to cuddle him up and tell him a bedtime story, he’s kidding himself. The Munster ten should have dropped that goal to secure an unlikely win against Racing 92 last Saturday (pictured below), but you know what? Daybreak broke on Sunday morning, and again Monday.

Friday night in Cork is set to be a major landmark for Stephen Archer, but he won’t be thinking about it too much.

Watching Munster on Saturday was both frustrating and exciting. The excitement came in a performance that gave glimpses of the talent and potential that lies in a squad loving life and enjoying its work under the province’s new coaching ticket.

Munster are hoping JJ Hanrahan and Rhys Marshall successfully come through this week’s two main training sessions to have a chance of making their comebacks against Racing 92 at Thomond Park on Saturday.

“Will it be a tale of goalkeepers?” George Hamilton intones portentously as the camera zooms in on Kasper Schmeichel. “Will it be a tale of goalscorers?”

Munster are holding out hope that JJ Hanrahan will pass fit to face Ospreys in their Heineken Champions Cup pool opener in Wales on Saturday but the province will definitely be without Dave Kilcoyne for the first two rounds at least of the European campaign.

The prospect of Munster being without Joey Carbery for several weeks has underlined Johann van Graan’s assertion that to win trophies the province will need a squad deep in quality.

Stephen Larkham earned himself a deserved reputation as one of the most stylish rugby players of his generation when representing Australia on 102 occasions.

Brighton and Hove Albion’s loss was Ballygunner’s gain

Johann van Graan has backed a “pumped” Joey Carbery to make a speedy return to the Ireland fold and book his place in Joe Schmidt’s 31-man World Cup squad for Japan next month.

Wallabies legend Stephen Larkham wants to bring a more cutting edge to the Munster attack as he embarks on his new role as the province’s Senior Coach.

Katarina Runske owns Anna B’s bookshop in Schull, Co Cork. She is originally from Stockholm in Sweden and also owns and runs Grove House restaurant and rooms in the West Cork village.

Refereeing Kilkenny-Tipperary Championship games this decade were like walking on a cliff edge.

Former Kilkenny hurler Brian Hogan said that talk of hurling tactics is “blown out of all proportion” and echoed Brian Cody’s sentiments that workrate and determination are much more valuable attributes in players.

I have a good friend who regularly remarks that words only mean something if they are followed by actions.

Super sub JJ Hutchinson was the game-changer for Ballygunner in the final quarter as the champions blitzed Dungarvan with the last nine points of yesterday’s Round 2 contest at a wet, wet, wet Walsh Park (1-18 to 0-14).

Munster and Ireland backs Joey Carbery and Keith Earls look set to return from injury to face Leinster in Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 semi-final following a positive fitness update from Johann van Graan.

Munster sneaked into the Guinness PRO14 semi-finals by the skin of their teeth in Limerick on Saturday as Benetton missed two late drop-goal attempts after a game performance in their historic first knockout game.

What Munster Rugby’s latest Hall of Fame inductee would have given to have played more than 100 times for his province.

Former Brighton & Hove Albion player Dessie Hutchinson nailed a late free from 40 metres as Gailltir edged An Rinn 1-5 to 1-4 on a miserable Sunday afternoon in Kill.

Munster coach Johann van Graan praised the strength and depth of his squad after they came from behind to oust Benetton Rugby in Treviso on Friday night.

Munster boss Johann van Graan has backed Tyler Bleyendaal to step up to the challenge of facing Saracens in Europe in 11 days if his downbeat assessment of Joey Carbery’s fitness proves correct.

Conor Murray insists Munster will be in good hands with Tyler Bleyendaal at out-half against Saracens in this month’s European semi-final should Joey Carbery fail to prove his fitness in time.

Arlene Harris talks to mums about the challenges and joys of rearing a large family

The province began training for the trip to Murrayfield on Monday, with their full squad reunited at their High Performance Centre in Limerick for the first time following Ireland’s Six Nations campaign

Munster supporters will finally get their wish this evening when Conor Murray partners Joey Carbery at half-back for the first time in provincial colours.

Munster head coach Johann Van Graan hailed his side's second-half display as they secured a 30-5 win over Castres Olympique in their Heineken Champions Cup clash at Thomond Park.

Clonmel’s six-race hurdle card proved a profitable one for favourite backers, with odds-on chances obliging in the first three races, but the feature event, the www.grahamnorris.com Memorial Handicap Hurdle, went to one of the outsiders, Time For Mabel.

Munster coach Johann van Graan has acknowledged the influence of fellow South Africans Johan and Ruan Ackermann on Gloucester, the side Munster face in Thomond Park tomorrow.

Turlough O’Brien may have been a tad hyperbolic when he claimed the proposed rule changes to football are reflective of a 1940s mindset yearning for the days when players donned flat caps, but certainly the suggested place for such experimentation smacks of a mentality that’s anachronistic.

Long before its conclusion, the 2018 football championship had assumed all the air and feel of a national league coming to its customary mild conclusion. Yeah, yeah ,yeah, yeah, OK, so such-and-such won it, fair play to them, but cut to the chase — how will they get on in the forthcoming championship?

Munster stars Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony have backed summer signing Joey Carbery to be a success at his new province following a move from Leinster.

With the likes of Simon Zebo, Andrew Conway and JJ Hanrahan to compete with, it hasn’t been easy for Stephen Fitzgerald to get a run in a Munster number 15 shirt.

Conor Murray’s reputation as the leading scrum-half in the Northern Hemisphere, if not the world, will mean the Munster star can expect a lot of attention from Racing 92’s forwards in Bordeaux tomorrow but Johann van Graan says his number nine will not be fazed.