Such is Leinster's dominance of the rugby landscape in Ireland right now, they're probably only a trophy or two away from sparking the 'Split the province in two' hot takes, a la Jim Gavin's Dublin footballers of a few years ago.
For the next two weeks though, that's exactly what Leo Cullen's side will be doing. The Leinster coach will bring a squad of 30 down to South Africa for their games in the Highveld against the Lions and Bulls, while Stuart Lancaster will stay back at base in UCD with the frontline players, and prepare specifically for their Heineken Champions Cup semi-final against Toulouse at the end of the month.
It's a phenomenal luxury for the province to have. With a top-seed already secured in the URC play-offs, their results in Johannesburg and Pretoria will have no material impact on the table. In a best case scenario they win two matches, and in a worst case scenario they provide an invaluable learning experience to younger players.
While it's a luxury, it's a luxury they've afforded themselves for their unbeaten season so far. The games in South Africa will be their final matches away from home, and after that they'll pitch up at the Aviva Stadium for the business end of both the URC and Champions Cup.
They'll have to be right at their best to get the better of Toulouse in that mouthwatering semi-final, but Friday's quarter-final win against the Leicester Tigers was another example of just how big the gap is between the sides at Europe's top table, and those even just one level below.
It's almost laughable to think they could be without the World Player of the Year (Josh van der Flier) and another World Player of the Year nominee (Johnny Sexton), put 55 points and seven tries on the Premiership champions, and yet still leave people poking holes in a sloppy first half performance.
Their dominance, and specifically how to challenge it, has been a talking point after each of the recent wins against Ulster and Leicester. Last week, Ulster boss Dan McFarland bluntly pointed to the demographics and conveyor belt of players they can choose from a young age, while Tigers head coach Richard Wigglesworth (below) pointed to the contrast in budgets between Leinster and the best of the Premiership.
Those opinions were put to Cullen on Saturday night after their 55-24 win against Leicester, and while the Leinster boss wasn't keen to talk about those specific comments, he did speak about the efforts his own province have gone to in recent years to become bigger and better.
"Not long ago we were having the conversation about the gulf between us and other teams, French teams in particular, so you know what I mean?," he said.
There was also an honest admission that as a province they may have taken their eye off the ball in recent seasons when it came to being a 12-county team, with Cullen pointing to their disappointing crowds for their URC quarter and semi-finals last season.
"I always think we’re only scratching the surface of what potential we have. One of the things leading into this season we were probable most conscious of, if you think back to the tail-end of last season, where we were struggling for crowds.
"If you remember we had 6,000 [9,346] against Glasgow and whatever it was, nine or 10,000 [11,565] against the Bulls, so we had to have a good look at ourselves because there’s some sort of disconnect there. So, are we not doing enough to get out and about, and really engage with supporters and in the 12-county part of Leinster? Maybe we weren’t doing enough in that space, so we tried to push that.
"So that’s what I am focused on. I’m not really focused on what other teams are doing or what other teams are saying. I’m focused on what we can do, what we can do better because that’s what’s in our control, so we’ll continue to do that.
"What other teams say is sort of wasted energy for me commenting on it, isn’t it?"
With a pipeline of pro-ready players coming through the lucrative schools scene, and seven of their squad on IRFU central contracts, it's undeniable the province have financial advantages that aid them when signing and re-signing talent.
But Cullen was keen to stress that their success is more a result of hard work.
"We were watching other provinces lift European Cups, Ulster in the late 90s, and that’s off the back of Ulster winning 10 Interpros in a row. So, that's my formative years of watching rugby which was complete domination by Ulster.
"More recently, if you think about that period in 2003; Munster were the dominant province in Ireland, weren't they? We got beaten by Perpignan that day 20 years ago. I have that programme somewhere, I can tell you exactly where it is; it's on my desk. They stick in the memory. People have short memories, unfortunately I have a long one.
"It's hard work, there's no secret to success. You've got to have guys who are willing to put in hard work and the minute you get complacent there's somebody else waiting to take your spot.
"What would you say Ulster's domination in the 1980s and '90s was based on? Probably a really strong group of players who worked hard for each other and that's what we're trying to create here and have all the time, a strong group of players who want to work hard for each other.
"Munster? What was that based on? A strong group of players who worked really hard for each other. We were hugely envious of that at the time, they had domination for 10-12 years.
"People have funny memories haven't they?," he added.
And the 45-year-old was keen to point out that despite talk of their dominance, they did end last season trophyless, while their last Champions Cup title came back in 2028.
"For us, it's trying to deliver on the big stage; that's what it's all about.
"It's about delivering on the big days, on the semi-final. If you get through that game, delivering on the next game, whatever that's going to be. It's an unusual sequence of games because we know we have a semi-final but we actually have a quarter-final of the URC after that, which is an unusual dynamic and how everyone navigates that part of the season.
"We know we're in the semi-final and a week after the semi-final, we're playing a quarter-final of a different competition. How that gets navigated is going to be tricky but we know we have those couple of games.
"We know we're in South Africa for the next couple of weeks and that's tricky to navigate so we know those four weeks, but we'll see after that."
