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.

Francis Saili, Munster’s big name signing from Auckland, is set to make his first appearance in the red jersey in Friday’s friendly against Connacht at Thomond Park.

The significance of Paul O’Connell’s final game for Munster this evening is lost on no-one who has shared his remarkable career in red.

A dozen have been recruited and a dozen have failed to take centre stage, but Munster will hope All Black Francis Saili can finally provide a remedy for their midfield woes.

Are the days of signing top, top names now more difficult for Munster because of finances?

HEINEKEN CUP SEMI-FINAL

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.

Having spent precious little time at Munster in his first spell with the province six years ago, signing for them this summer barely represents a spiritual homecoming for James Downey.

MUNSTER are not a great team.

ALL rational thinking suggests that only the Thomond Park factor can save Munster from a second Heineken Cup defeat at the venue when Northampton Saints come calling on Saturday.

THE media and the marketing departments will try to hype this one up, but for every player who has ever been involved in it this game sells itself.

ANOTHER high-profile rugby player has been forced into early retirement.

Munster centre Barry Murphy has announced today that he is to retire from professional rugby following a spate of serious injuries.

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

SIX years ago Munster beat a hasty retreat from the Stade Aime Giral, battered, bruised and all but eliminated from the Heineken Cup.

TONY McGAHAN is taking his players away for a seven-day training camp to sunny Vilamoura in Portugal next Wednesday but yesterday the Australian had to equip himself with the worst elements of the Irish ‘summer’ at rain-lashed Clonakilty Rugby Club.

JEAN de Villiers has apparently taken another step towards a new career with Munster, following the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa.

LET’S put the scale of Saturday’s Heineken Cup semi-final into perspective. The Champions League final featuring Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow last season attracted an audience of 67,310.

LAST night’s New Year’s Eve bash at the Anthony Horgan household was due to double as a leaving do.

COMPETITION is the heartbeat of any side. On that basis alone, Munster are in rude health as their quest to regain the Heineken Cup gathers momentum over the next 10 days.

January 18, 2003. Pool Two: Munster 33 Gloucester 6

NO matter what your sporting preference, the television pictures from venues across Europe last weekend portrayed the same images, driving wind and lashing rain. The weather conditions that prevail at this time of year do different things to different teams. Usually it has the effect of closing the gap between the good and the not so good.

ON THE BASIS that Munster rarely perform poorly in successive games, the defeat and subsequent lessons learned from the loss to Leinster last Friday may prove timely.

AS SURE as night follows day, rugby players retire and fresh talent emerges. I was extremely fortunate to kickstart my international career in the company of some of the greats of Irish rugby including Moss Keane, Fergus Slattery, Willie Duggan and Ollie Campbell.

MUNSTER have appointed recently retiring full-back Shaun Payne as their new team manager.

NEW ZEALAND Maori inside centre Rua Tipoki could be Munster-bound in time for next season’s Heineken Cup campaign.

MUNSTER coach Declan Kidney has praised his Cork Constitution counterpart Brian Walsh for helping shape young full back Denis Hurley’s career.

IT won’t have pleased Munster that they finished third of the four Irish teams in the Magners League, but there were some positives to take from Saturday’s comprehensive win over bogey side Glasgow Warriors.

THE Bank Holiday weekend kicked off, literally, yesterday as the largest Sevens tournament in the northern hemisphere got underway.

Christian Cullen and John Kelly return to the Munster squad for the penultimate home game of the season against Newport-Gwent Dragons in the Magner's League at Musgrave Park on Saturday (KO 5pm).

THE SEASON may not be officially over, but, from the moment the final whistle blew on Munster and Leinster’s Heineken Cup ambitions, both provinces were in post-mortem mode and plotting next season’s campaigns.

TOP Munster players, captain Paul O’Connell, Peter Stringer, David Wallace, Shaun Payne and Alan Quinlan are all ruled out of Saturday’s Magner’s League clash with Llanelli at Musgrave Park (7.30).

NEITHER David Wallace nor Denis Leamy will be considered for selection on the Munster team to play the Ospreys in Wales tomorrow night.

Munster coach Declan Kidney has named Anthony Horgan in the Munster squad for the first time since January when they travel to Neath-Swansea Ospreys in the Magners League on Saturday.

IF IRELAND’S bid for Six Nations glory ended in anti-climax as a result of Elvis Vermeulen's injury time try against Scotland, the feeling of disappointment was far more acute after the exit of Munster and Leinster from the Heineken Cup last weekend.

IT tells you something about the rich three-quarter pickings in New Zealand that one of the country’s leading lights in this season’s Heineken Cup, Llanelli Scarlets Regan King, hasn’t been the recipient of a single query from All Blacks head coach Graham Henry.

WITH a cloud still hanging over the participation of the French clubs in next season’s Heineken Cup, the possibility remains that this year’s competition could be the last truly representative one for some time.

IT WAS always going to be an enormous task, but makeshift Munster pulled out all the stops to secure a dramatic and well merited victory over Ulster at Ravenhill last night.

Ulster 21 Munster 24

Munster make seven changes from the side that played Cardiff Blues for the trip to Ravenhill in the Magner's League on Friday night.

MUNSTER second-row forwards Chris Wyatt and Donnacha Ryan are auditioning tonight for a starting place in the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Llanelli.

Brian Carney has been named in a Munster squad for the Magner's League tie against Ulster on Friday night first time on foot of the announcement of his two-year contract last week.

MUNSTER have been given a huge boost with the news that John Kelly and Trevor Halstead have been restored to full fitness.

Munster coach Declan Kidney makes four changes, from the side that started against Border Reivers, for Friday's Magners League clash with Cardiff Blues.