Following the hard-fought win on enemy territory at Thomond Park, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen seemed to have a bee in his bonnet.
Speaking pitch side on Premier Sports, Cullen had former Munster stalwart Simon Zebo in his crosshairs as they dissected the five-point victory.
The mood was jovial – as it normally is with Zebo in close proximity – and Cullen on three occasions asked whether there more Leinster imports than homegrown talent in the Munster squad.
Clayton McMillan's starting team boasted four players – Tom Farrell, Michael Milne, Lee Barron and Tadhg Beirne – that began their respective careers in blue and Cullen seemed intent on making a point.
This was a couple of days before Ciarán Frawley’s departure for Connacht was finally confirmed, the latest player to leave the Leinster bottleneck in search of regular gametime, and the most high-profile name to head for the Leinster exit door since Joey Carbery’s move to Munster in 2018.
Speaking on the RTÉ Rugby podcast, former Leinster and Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman believes Frawley’s signing is big news for Connacht, Irish rugby and indeed the player himself who will set his sights on nailing down the number 10 position after years of moving around the houses in the Leinster backline.
"He’s going to play at 10, there’s no doubt about that," Jackman said. "He has been incredibly loyal to Leinster. He has stayed two or three years longer than others might have.
"By being so versatile, it has not helped him get a regular run of games. We have seen him flirt at 10, but we haven’t seen him get the chance to do so consistently, to get the chance to lead the team and be the number one. I think his talent deserves at least a crack at it."
The Frawley move is part of the bigger picture in Irish rugby.
Cullen has admitted Leinster did everything they possibly could to hold onto the 28-year-old and Jackman says that falling short at the business end of the season in recent campaigns will make squad players less likely to stick around.
"There is certainly a feeling among certain Leinster players that it is less attractive to stay now because of the lack of silverware," he said. "Players talk."
While Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has often plumped for second-choice Leinster players in international squads and match-day 23s, that is likely to change also according to Jackman.
"I could understand why Farrell did that as Ireland were successful and those Leinster players were often able to come in and perform to a high level because the way Leinster players and trained and played was very similar to Ireland. That’s not the case anymore.
"It's probably now more important to be getting game time at a province."
The other notable factor is that from August of next year, provinces will have to make a greater contribution towards the cost of central contracts.
Of the 14 centrally contracted IRFU players, 11 are from Leinster and they will have to pay 40% of the wages for their players who are contracted to the union, up from the 30% figure which was announced in May of last year.
All of this was in the mix during the Frawley negotiations and Jackman believes Cullen’s joust with Zebo was borne out of the fact that others may follow Frawley’s path, with the likes of Scott Penny and Jordan Larmour among those linked with moves away from the province.
"Going against Leinster is the fact that central contracts are not fully funded now and they have to make choices," he said.
"I think that probably led to Cullen having a dig at Zebo post-match. I think Leo, and people in Leinster, feel hard-done by. Unfortunately that is pro-sport.
"Even in the NFL, everyone has a squad size and a salary cap that they have to keep to.
"It was a poor argument to make I think, though I understand he may be frustrated by Frawley. I think Frawley is the first one in a long time they wanted to keep, desperately keep. The rest were all obvious decisions."
Jackman argues that for the convoy of players that have left Leinster in recent years, most of those departures were obvious ones, stating that Tadhg Beirne is probably the only player who would come straight back into the starting Leinster team if he returned to his native province.
Looking to the future, Jackman can see an Irish rugby landscape with more internal movement than we have seen previously.
"I wonder will the new way of Irish rugby, with Leinster less financially dominant or supported, see Munster target Connacht players? Or Ulster players?
"Suddenly we are getting players who are not getting as much game time as they would like, who suit a different style of play better.
"I haven’t heard of Munster looking elsewhere, but they will be an attractive proposition for any player. We might not just be talking about Leinster players leaving, it could be more of an open market across the board."
Listen to live commentary of Leinster v Connacht in the URC on Saturday from 5.30pm on RTÉ Radio 1.
