It’s the job of the Ireland U20s coach to push and prod the players of tomorrow further down the development line but Noel McNamara found himself talking about one from the past yesterday.

Four Rabo PRO12 fixtures, three Irish internationals and seven weeks stand between Leinster and the first of their back-to-back European heavyweight contests against Clermont Auvergne but it is a fixture already dominating thoughts and headlines.