Munster's season has had more ups and downs than one of Graham Rowntree's lineout sessions, but in recent weeks their trajectory has been steady and upward.
Their wins against Exeter Chiefs in Europe, and Cardiff and Ulster in the URC, see them well-placed heading into the business end of the season, while their often criticised attack has started to fire the right shots.
Since their tour of South Africa in March, Johann van Graan's side have looked to take more risks with the ball in hand, taking advantage of the more favourable conditions in the final third of the season.
On Friday night, Van Graan's side played to the conditions - a mild evening and an artificial pitch - scoring five tries in a 42-21 win against Cardiff, with the likes of Mike Haley, Ben Healy and Craig Casey exceling in attack, and Jack O'Donoghue and Thomas Ahern showing versatility as both ball-carriers and distributors.
And after a season in which Munster have often been criticised for showing a lack of ambition, their head coach says their game is evolving at just the right time.
"In terms of our development through the year from our attacking game, our kicking game, and our defensive game I felt we had a good balance again tonight," he said after the bonus-point win at Musgrave Park.
"We scored some fantastic tries, we defended really well at stages and we put the ball behind them strategically and went short from kick-offs so good variation in our game.
"I think since the Dragons and the Edinburgh game at home at the back end of February and March we've played some good rugby.
"The Bulls and Lions, we had some good passages, the Leinster game was the one when we didn't perform well enough and the last four weeks specifically I thought we’ve certainly improved week on week. We’re comfortable with the way we want to play, we can improve in all areas and we are in a good position the fact that we’ll be in the knockouts of both competitions.
"From here on in it’s knockout in terms of Europe and in the URC we’ve got one round left. Who knows what we might need to do to get a home quarter-final."
"I think we were a lot more comfortable on the ball. We're comfortable to play on a 4G pitch, we’re comfortable to give the ball to the opposition like we did against Exeter in the second game in the second half and if you look at the last kick off that we received, we’re comfortable to keep the ball from our own goal line.
"So, definitely a lot of improvements. That also comes from continuity, the fact that we’ve been together now for three years and the fact that the international players came back after the Six Nations and they’ve been in the system again for a month.
"So, look, we’re in a good place on a Friday night but there’s still a long way to go in this season, but I would have taken those five points before tonight."
Timing is everything, and at the moment Munster are starting to look like they've found an extra gear, the South African knows they can't afford a drop-off with a Heineken Champions Cup against Toulouse to come at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
"Yeah, look, that word 'momentum’ is big in sport and it’s big in rugby," he added.
"We’ve certainly got momentum in our side in terms of what we’ve done the last few weeks and we’ve kept the emotion down, to take it week by week.
"We knew tonight was a dangerous evening in terms of Cardiff. We really respect the way they attack, specifically from lineouts and you saw that from that very first one, so we have to make sure that we keep working hard and focus on our strengths and I thought we did that tonight."
Meanwhile, Van Graan is staying coy on the availability of Andrew Conway and Tadhg Beirne, who have been sidelined with injury since the end of the Six Nations.
But there appear to be concerns over flanker John Hodnett, who suffered a knee injury in last week's win at Ulster.
"John Hodnett, we’ve sent him for another opinion. We would like to make sure. We’ll report back on that next week once we know from the specialist," Van Graan added.
"In terms of [Andrew] Conway, we’ll just take it week on week.
"Everybody’s pushing, everybody wants to play in these big games and we’ve quite a few of them coming up over the next seven weeks so as soon as we can get guys back in we will do so.
"The challenge is going to become who do we leave out, and that’s a great position to be in."
