What a difference a week makes.
Seven days ago Munster were preparing for a trip to France that could have had a devastating impact on their ability to qualify for the last-16 of the Investec Champions Cup.
This week, they'll welcome Northampton Saints to Thomond Park, knowing their place in the next round is practically guaranteed, with only a very unlikely scenario knocking them out.
For Munster to miss out on a place in the Round of 16, Graham Rowntree's side would need to lose against the Saints without picking up a bonus point, while Bayonne would also need a bonus-point win against Exeter, while also overturning a 51 point differential on the province. Glasgow, meanwhile, would also have to turn over Toulon.
While a home last-16 game will almost certainly be a bridge too far, there's a lot of jostling for position still to be done. A win against Northampton on Saturday could be the difference between travelling to Toulouse and Bath in the spring.
With 16 teams to account for, the permutations don't bear thinking about. The simple scenario for Munster - and the rest of the provinces - is to win first, and think about it later.
"It's impossible to predict," Munster defence coach Denis Leamy says.
"George Murray [Munster's lead analyst] sent me a calculator, I opened it up and just closed it again. I got a nosebleed!"
With Munster's game against Northampton a full 24 hours before Bayonne and Exeter, the URC champions will be playing the Saints in the dark, not knowing who they'll be facing or where they'll be travelling in the next round. For Leamy [above], that makes the task a bit easier.
"That's the whole point, isn't it? We don't know exactly what we're playing for, if that makes sense. I think first thing's first, we have to concentrate on the process; win the game.
"There's all sorts of permutations after that and god only knows where we end up after that. We'll try and control what we can control."
It's the second year in a row that Munster and Northampton have faced off in the Champions Cup, with the Irish side winning both; a 17-6 victory in a bad tempered contest at Franklins Gardens, before surviving a Saints comeback to hold on for a 27-24 win at Thomond Park.
The evidence so far this season suggests that Northampton have improved considerably in the last 12 months.
Top of the Premiership and top of Pool 3, Phil Dowson's side have scored 16 tries in their three Champions Cup games to date. And although the English side have already qualified for the next round, they have ample reason to target a win in Limerick, with a chance of securing home advantage for both the last 16 and quarter-final, should they get there.
As defence coach, Leamy knows he has his hands full against a side who put 61 points on Bayonne a week ago.
"We spoke about it this morning, I showed the boys pictures. We've played them twice and this will be the third time in the last year. We know them quite well but what I would say is they've moved to another level around all aspects of their game.
"They’re a better team again than what we played last year. Their attack is class. It’s really, really good. Their speed of ball, you know, quickest ruck in the Premiership. How we deal with that, how we manage that will be really important because they’ve got such quality.
"Just even take their middle segment of their team. They’ve [Courtney] Lawes, [Tom] Pearson, [Juarno] Augustus, you’ve got [Alex] Mitchell who runs everything for them, he’s a brilliant conductor, Fin Smith, and [Rory] Hutchinson, the Scottish lad. They’re quality, just brilliant attacking rugby players. Their attack is really pretty scary to be honest with you. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen an attack that’s choreographed and put together, really well put together."
The Munster assistant is hoping his side can feed off their win in Toulouse, where they defended aggressively and got rewards.
And while the raw numbers might suggest their defending was porous, Leamy held it up as an example as to why the pictures are more important than the numbers.
"I was really pleased. Analysing Toulon coming into the game, they had lots of threats and especially against the French sides, you're talking about how you manage their power.
"They obviously had a lot of Polynesian influence and you just see the explosive power they can generate. So I was pleased, I was really pleased how we dealt with them around the contact zone. We got involved in a lot of battles, we stripped them on a number of occasions, we win some vital turnovers in the poach, so I thought structurally to allow us to do that was good.
"Around the contact game and winning the gainline, I thought we were pretty good. I was very pleased with a lot we did. We fell off a lot of tackles, our tackle completion was 83% which was down from the last three games where we hit 96% against Exeter, 95% against Leinster.
"Our tackle completion was really strong but the only thing I'd say about that is that we're a linespeed pressure team. We're not about sitting on the line, keeping our integrity and making tackles. We want to apply pressure through our linespeed, through our contacts.
"So even thought we may have fallen off a tackle or two, there was always someone there to make the next one. That's the important thing, that we take that space."
Watch Munster v Northampton in the Champions Cup on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 4.45pm this Saturday, follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app or listen live on RTÉ Radio 1.
