Munster defence coach JP Ferreira is the first to acknowledge that Faf de Klerk and Craig Casey are at contrasting points in their careers but he can think of nobody better than the World Cup winner for the young Limerick scrum-half to follow.

Johann van Graan is confident Darren Sweetnam has what it takes to fill the breach left by an injury to Keith Earls ahead of a European semi-final with Saracens that Peter O’Mahony believes will be Munster’s biggest challenge of the last three years.

Munster acknowledge they are underdogs going into Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 game against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium — but that doesn’t mean they are going to accept the tag.