Rob Kearney can’t help but feel that the “hatred” and bite that once characterised Leinster’s rivalry with Munster has been lost.

The veteran Ireland full-back first played against Munster back in 2005 when he ran on as a second-half substitute at Musgrave Park. Leinster were thumped 33-9 that evening as chants of ‘easy, easy’ rang around the Cork venue.

The rivalry was utterly raw then and would continue to be for the rest of that decade.

The two Heineken Cup semi-finals, in 2006 and 2009, were the undoubted pinnacles of their modern shared histories but Leinster and Munster left their marks on each other in both the psychological and physical senses in the Celtic League’s various guises, too.

He recalled one occasion early on his career, in Thomond Park at the back end of 2006, when he spilled a succession of Ronan O’Gara up-and-unders in the pelting rain and how Paul O’Connell smacked his arse and killed him with an insincere kindness.

“Best of luck kid,” O’Connell told him.”You’ll get the next one, you’ll get the next one.” There is more than a part of him that misses those old days but there is an acknowledgement that others may see the current rivalry in more visceral terms. Munster, after all, have lost five of the last six meetings. They will hardly lack for motivation this Saturday.

If there has been a thaw in relations, then the rapprochement has had an up side.

“Yeah it’s certainly different now than it was, say, for my first one, 13, 14 years ago,” said Kearney yesterday. “There’s not the same level of hatred. Guys get on much better in national camp now. A lot of the guys would consider themselves good friends and that certainly wasn’t the case 14 years ago.

“So, maybe back then that was a little bit to the detriment of the national team’s performances. You need to have real strong relationships with your teammates at national level to be a successful team, so if it has taken a small bit of the bite out of the provincial derbies, at least it has come at some sort of a cost or an expense (sic).”

Kearney quickly shot down the suggestion that his famous speech at Enfield in 2008, when he suggested the Munster players gave more for their province than their country, played a major role in breaking down the barriers.

His own sense is that the IRFU’s player management system and subsequent resting of some big names for these clashes, allied to the need to keep one eye on European dates around the corner, have done most to smooth over the rivalry’s roughest edges.

Whatever the events at the Aviva Stadium, they will be left behind on the pitch. There will, he insisted, be no mention of provincial matters once the few dozen Ireland internationals on both sides meet up at team HQ for the November series.

“You don’t even go there,” said the 32-year old.

“If you lose, you take it on the chin and if you win, you (don’t rub it in) because the tables turn. You want to get off on a good footing when you get into November camp.”

“If the first day you see them, they’re up in your face, giving you grief about how they hockeyed you a few weeks ago, it’s not going to go down too well. To be fair, as soon as full-time comes, it will be back to normal business.”

Parish pride is only part of this weekend’s gathering.

Leinster and Munster still offer mutually beneficial barometers at such a key juncture in the season. The former may have won eight of the last 10 but six of those have been earned with a score or less to spare.

Of the two, the European and league champions have been much the more impressive and Kearney wasn’t the first man on either side

of the divide to express uncertainty as to where Johann van Graan’s side stand after an inconsistent start to the campaign.

What he has been impressed by his old clubmate Joey Carbery.

“Yeah, he’s been very good. Joey’s strength is his broken field running. I’ve seen a fair few incidents in every game where he’s caused a bit of damage. It’s been tough to get a real accurate read on where Munster are at the moment, given the calibre of teams they’ve played.”