Peter Jackson: Munster heroics needed now more than ever

Not for the first time, the tournament itself is in urgent need of something special to start recovering some of the mystique and lustre lost in recent seasons.

Munster's Keith Earls after the game with Exeter

Should Munster revert to type and turf yet another English club out of Europe on Saturday, they will owe a debt of gratitude to the last of their old warriors.

On a day when his depleted team went perilously close to sinking without trace, Keith Earls’ enduring knack of finding a way out of the tightest corner gives them a fighting chance of proving they are still in the business of winning the big ones.