Pool Four/Leicester v Munster: Strange times in Munster. The mood at Thomond Park amongst an 8,000-plus crowd after the 21-10 defeat at home to Edinburgh last Friday was palpably incredulous. The natives are restless after a fourth defeat in six games, which has undoubtedly prompted a bout of navel contemplation among the European champions. They hate losing, and aren't used to it on this scale.
Whether it has affected their confidence is a question better put to the players, coach Declan Kidney maintained, but while there were mitigating factors in the four defeats thus far, Munster were "without a doubt" not flowing in certain parts of those games.
There's no specific area causing Kidney concern facing into their slightly daunting opening Heineken European Cup defence away to Leicester on Sunday, but he admitted: "Leicester are a hugely physical side. Mother of God, they're huge, and their bench is probably even bigger, so that's an attitude of mind, that you must get yourself ready for the whole physicality of the match. But in our own preparations 90 per cent of it has to be about ourselves and getting our own little bits right," not least, he added, because turnovers leave a side more vulnerable than anything else in a match.
He conceded a relative lack of physicality, in the collisions and at the breakdown, might "possibly" be one of the things they could improve on - although there was little wrong in that department at home to Ulster three matches ago - conceding, "We wouldn't hide from that; we can do better in lots of areas and that's probably one of them."
Kidney observed it's not for want of hard work, and if anything he's had to rein his players in. It's assuredly comforting too that he can play Sunday's opening hand from virtually a full deck.
The only notable absentees from yesterday's 25-man squad were Christian Cullen and Anthony Horgan, and the Munster coach expects all 25 to be fit for selection.
The side would appear to pick itself, save for the back row, where they must pick three from four. It's almost unthinkable Anthony Foley won't start, though he's due a big game, or the pick of their pack to date, David Wallace.
Denis Leamy's presence at yesterday's media day in Cork suggests he's in line to start, which could leave Alan Quinlan, unlucky to strain a hamstring against Leinster early on and confined to a late cameo against Edinburgh, on the bench again.
This would leave a team of Payne; Kelly, Murphy, Halstead, Dowling; O'Gara, Stringer; Horan, Sheahan, Hayes; O'Callaghan, O'Connell; Leamy, Wallace and Foley.
The bench looks like comprising Federico Pucciariello, Andy Kyriacou, Mick O'Driscoll, Quinlan, Tomás O'Leary, Jeremy Manning and the new Kiwi recruit Lifeimi Mafi, leaving Chris Wyatt, Eoghan Hickey and the Portuguese youngster Diogo Mateus likeliest to miss the 22-man cut tomorrow.
Munster's last trek to Welford Road was a vengeful quarter-final victory in 2003, the season after their final defeat to the Tigers in Cardiff. Paul O'Connell recalled that it also came in the immediate aftermath of England's thumping of Ireland in the Grand Slam decider, and that the Munster fans' willingness to put hands in pockets and back their team was as pronounced as ever.
In their latest hour of need, Munster will derive comfort in the knowledge the Red Army are mobilising once more, having snapped up their entire allocation of 2,500 tickets for Sunday - even if Leicester will assuredly be cuter in preventing the visiting supporters taking over the joint as they did that day in 2003.
"I think the fact that they want to travel with us and support us again hasn't changed," said Peter Stringer. "They're looking to getting back on that journey . . . they want to see us competing physically in the south of France and England, to grind out these victories, and it's encouraging to hear that they want to be there with us for games like that."
O'Connell doesn't believe Leicester will be seeking vengeance. "Leicester are motivated year in, year out, not by history but by their ambition. They're a very ambitious side," he said, and that makes them - along with other multiple trophy winners like Toulouse and Wasps - something of a template for the Munster captain.
"They set their own standards all the time, not by revenge matches or anything like that. I think that's an important part of their psyche and why they're so successful." This is the challenge facing Munster.
"Definitely the motivation has to come from somewhere else this year," admitted O'Connell. "Obviously for the last few years we've been driven and focused, maybe by bad memories and an ambition to do something for ourselves and our supporters.
"Now that we've won the European Cup the drive has to come from somewhere else and it will be interesting to see how we react to that."
Which prompts the question where that comes from. From the ambition of the players and the management, says O'Connell.
"It's a question of whether you're happy just to achieve what was called the Golden Grail for Munster, or whether you go on and try and achieve the status of being a great team."
Citing the achievements, domestically and in Europe, of Leicester, Toulouse and Wasps, O'Connell added: "Those are the teams associated with greatness, not the teams that do it just once and then fade into insignificance."
It's hard to imagine Munster doing that. Not just yet.
Munster squad
M Horan, J Hayes, F Pucciariello, F Sheahan, A Kyriacou, P O'Connell (capt), M O'Driscoll, D O'Callaghan, C Wyatt, A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy, A Foley, P Stringer, T O'Leary, R O'Gara, J Manning, E Hickey, I Dowling, J Kelly, B Murphy, T Halstead, L Mafi, D Mateus, S Payne.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)