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RUGBY/MAGNERS LEAGUE:BY MOST normal standards, it would have been deemed a singularly competitive campaign. Despite being ravaged by injuries – five of their first-choice pack and a key back started less than half their games – they reached the semi-finals of both competitions only to lose both away from home. But this is Munster.

When they did enjoy a relatively settled spell of games they reached their peaks – Perpignan and Treviso in January, Northampton in the quarter-finals. What rankled though was the manner in which they lost to Leinster and Biarritz, especially the way the latter blitzed the Munster scrum.