Isa Nacewa says Leinster and Munster can bring back glory days

Seven years on from that Leinster-Munster ding dong in front of a world record crowd at Croke Park and the prospects of seeing anything like it again at the business end of a European campaign appear slim.

A dwindling Irish influence on the continent evaporated last January when all three of the provinces were exiled from the knockout stages. The Anglo-French carve-up, long feared with the new tournament, had arrived sooner than anyone expected.

Gordon D’Arcy put the new reality in perspective last month when he suggested it is now 35%-40% harder to make the last eight and that qualifying from the pools had become almost impossible for the Celtic sides.