While everyone at Munster’s headquarters at UL are delighted so many members of their squad are involved in Irish camp, they are also well aware the absence of such talent means their Guinness PRO14 games against Ospreys in Swansea on Friday and Scarlets a week later become particularly difficult assignments.

However, Johann van Graan has again stressed it provides a number of his squad with the opportunity to put their hands up for recognition. And he insists they will need to do just that against Ospreys to get the kind of result that will keep them as Munster take on Ospreys in bid to stay at the top of Conference A.

“I wouldn’t read too much into the fact they didn’t score at the weekend against Ulster,” he declared. “They have a really good distance kicking game and they pin teams in their own half. They wait for you to kick it badly and they just keep the ball waiting for your defence to make a mistake.

“If you really want to run at them, you have to do so from 80 yards out and so we will have to adapt our plan accordingly and that is the beauty of rugby, tactically you need to try and outsmart your opposition. With any away game in this PRO14, even if you look at the Zebre v Leinster game over the weekend, the Cardiff v Glasgow game, the Scarlets v Treviso game, every game is a battle, so we don’t expect anything different on Friday.”

Where the absence of so many front line players is concerned, van Graan is typically philosophical: “At this stage we are ruling them out. Like always, the communication between Joe and myself has been very good. Their week starts a day later because they only play on Sunday against Italy and we play Friday night, travelling on Thursday, so we might only get to know that day if we’re getting anyone back.”

Claiming five points from the game in Musgrave Park on Friday night against Southern Kings pleased van Graan as did the statistic they didn’t concede a single penalty.

“That hasn’t happened very often in a game of rugby,” he said smiling. “To be fair to the referee (Italian Alex Piardi), he handled the game really well. It was his first game. He didn’t give a lot of technical penalties, most were for foul play. We are proud of our tackling technique, especially on the 4G pitch, because it’s so fast you can get it wrong a few times. The biggest take away from our side is the five points. Discipline wise, we did quite well.”

This is the time of the season when coaches are busy figuring out which players are fully fit again having successfully recuperated their injuries and those who are still laid low. Talented back-row Jack O’Donoghue comes into the first category, the luckless Jack Cronin into the latter.

“Jack is pushing for a place in the 23 for the last three weeks,” said the coach. “We have literally said: ‘Listen, two more weeks, we are going to give you a full week of full contact in training’ and then on Friday night I made him part of the 26 and he warmed up with the team, just to get back into the swing of things. There is a good possibility that he will be in the 23.”

Sadly, the news about Cronin is not so good.

“We have made a decision to take him out of rugby and make sure that knee gets properly rehabbed,” van Graan explained. “We don’t foresee him playing in this block. We have targeted the start of the next block to get him back. He is really working hard, it is frustrating not only for him but for us as well, he is one of the starters in our team.”