This week’s news that Connacht star Robbie Henshaw has decided to leave his native province and link up with Leinster has come as another source of disappointment for Munster fans disenchanted with their team’s poor form and a perception that not a whole lot is being done about it.

New Munster signing Mark Chisholm will arrive in the province today to undergo a medical with supporters hoping this is the start of a beautiful relationship.

So, has it always been rugby with you?

Donncha O’Callaghan would love it if Peter Stringer rejoined Munster.

Munster’s great tradition in European competition has always been something to cling to in tough times, writes Ronan O’Gara.

Munster coach Anthony Foley last night insisted his hands have not been tied in pursuit of big money signings.

WHILE professionalism is now well entrenched in rugby, John Kelly’s role for Munster Rugby has progressed from a decade as a paid player until the Ireland wing’s retirement in 2007 to that of a volunteer, albeit one a chair of a PGC responsible for the recruitment and retention of players as well as the hiring of the coaching staff.

Connacht chief executive Willie Ruane believes the arrival of All Black centurion Mils Muliaina to the province later this month will take the game in the west of Ireland to the next level.

Imports like Mils Muliaina and Bundee Aki can leave a lasting legacy at a club. It’s not just what you learn on the Saturday, it’s as much about what you’re picking up from Monday to Friday.

Donncha O’Callaghan has warned his team-mates not to underestimate the motivation driving Toulouse in this weekend’s Heineken Cup quarter-final.

It was not just the Wallabies downed in Australia at the weekend by men who had travelled halfway across the globe.

Ex-Wallaby second row John Langford travelled north to become one of Irish rugby’s most significant overseas signings during a three-season spell with Munster from 1999 to 2002. He doesn’t get to watch the game he loves too often these days but he's making an exception this summer.

Marcus Horan sat down to decide his future. Another year in rugby? With no contract on the table from Munster he knew it was time to end a long and fruitful sporting career.

THERE is a famous picture hanging in the headquarters of the ACT Brumbies in Canberra.

Mick Galwey last night paid a glowing tribute to Munster’s Mick O’Driscoll whose retirement after 15 years as one of the country’s most consistent second-row forwards will be announced in Limerick today.

Stand-in Ireland forwards coach, Anthony Foley, says everyone involved with the team is sick and tired of having to put up with poor refereeing.

IT used to be all too easy to chide Leinster for their dependence on the south Dublin hinterland — on and off the pitch — but Saturday’s win wasn’t just forged on the fields of Blackrock or Clongowes.

THE Ospreys have been warned not to underestimate what’s coming their way at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow, even allowing for the absence of Munster’s talisman Paul O’Connell.

MUNSTER legend Jim Williams returned to the province yesterday, eagerly looking ahead to tomorrow night’s clash with his old comrades at Thomond Park while concerned at the form displayed by his native Australia in their 35-18 defeat to England at Twickenham on Saturday.

“WHERE to now?” came the rhetorical question from a fan as we returned from Munster’s defeat against Biarritz on Sunday night.

DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN is always looking for an edge. He will always work harder than his colleagues to better himself. The Lions second row doesn’t have the flair and flamboyance of some of his team-mates, but he has a work ethic and a hunger for rugby knowledge unsurpassed by any player I have known.

FORMER Munster forwards coach Jim Williams, now in the same role with Australia, comes face-to-face with some of his former pupils when the tourists face Ireland at Croke Park tomorrow.

IN ONE sense, South African rugby star Jean de Villiers didn’t time his arrival in Ireland that well.

MUNSTER chief executive Garret Fitzgerald credits former players such as Jim Williams with spreading the word among southern hemisphere players about the Irish province as “a good place to work”.

MUNSTER chief executive Garret Fitzgerald credits former players such as Jim Williams with spreading the word among southern hemisphere players about the Irish province as “a good place to work”.

DAY TRIPS to Dublin, as evidenced by the multiple shoppers boarding the evening train last Saturday, can be expensive affairs.

JIM WILLIAMS returns to hisnative Australia in June, but has some unfinished business with Munster before his departure.

THE greatest testimony to the character and fortitude of the man is that Mick O’Driscoll this evening makes his 40th Heineken Cup appearance for Munster in the most competitive area of the team.

IRELAND’S assistant coach Niall O’Donovan believes the Irish provinces will hold their own in Europe next year despite an influx of highly-paid southern hemisphere players to English Premiership clubs.

MICK O’DRISCOLL has been a patient man when it came to clinching a starting place with Munster and Ireland.

THEY were the first, and until May they were the last, but since Ulster won the Heineken European Cup in 1999 it’s been downhill all the way, with the exception of their Celtic League victory last season.

YOU COULDN’T help but notice a look of disappointment in Jim Williams’ demeanour when asked would he have liked to have been on the Millennium Stadium pitch, winning a Heineken Cup medal with Munster on Saturday.

MUNSTER’S European success may strengthen their financial muscle, but CEO Garret Fitzgerald has indicated that the Heineken Cup trophy sitting in their cabinet will not herald a litany of high-profile foreign signings.

Being forewarned is to be forearmed and Munster captain Anthony Foley is now being forewarned —

PAUL O’Connell doesn’t ask for miracles from those around him. Being the pragmatist he is, the Munster second row accepts that everybody has been endowed with different gifts.

GIVEN that they would be accused of getting ahead of themselves if they looked beyond their quarter-final commitments, the representatives of the eight surviving teams in the Heineken Cup adopted a low key approach to the semi-final draw made yesterday in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, the venue for the final on May 20.

WHEN Mick O’Driscoll re-signed for Munster recently after two years with Perpignan, some fans suggested it was a detrimental step for the province.

SATURDAY night, a Munster supporter in San Sebastian for the Heineken Cup quarter-final game was giving directions to one of his mates.

OVER the years, Munster have made several outstanding signings.

INTERVIEW: It’s goodbye madcap antics and hello to a new Donncha O’Callaghan. Declan Colley met the returning Munster second row.

Barry Coughlan

SO, Steve Hansen has gone back to the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’, joining fellow Kiwi returnees Graham Henry and Wayne Smith in their bid to capture the Webb Ellis trophy for New Zealand for the first time since 1987.

GENUINELY world-class with ball in hand and hugely effective throughout the pitch, David Wallace faces into his 34th Heineken European Cup game at Thomond Park this evening intent on helping Munster into the quarter-finals for the sixth successive year.

THE huge Irish flag draped across the touchline hoarding carried one word. BELIEVE.