IRFU must now think beyond Pro12

The ineptitude of the Edinburgh challenge in front of their home support on Saturday evening highlights one of the biggest challenges facing the Irish provinces in the future.

It would be very easy to hide behind the fact that Leinster, Munster and Ulster will all contest RaboDirect Pro12 semi-finals as a benchmark for the comparative strength of our respective teams. But in the longer term, our domestic league is providing nothing more than a smokescreen for more serious issues down the road.

The fact that Munster could afford to make 11 changes from the side that faced Toulon six days earlier and beat Edinburgh by 43 points on the road, shows just how abject the Pro12 has become.