Sometimes it's hard to know whether Munster should hold on to the past or try to break free from it.
It's 11 years since their golden period came to an end, that 2010/11 success in what is now the BKT United Rugby Championship capping off a decade in which they won three domestic titles and a couple of Heineken Champions Cups.
Denis Leamy was involved in all of those successes, coming on to the scene in 2001 in between the province's first and second European final defeats at the start of that great journey.
And one of the province's great back rows has now returned to Thomond Park to help bring silverware back to his home side.
Leamy's playing days were cut short by a hip injury in 2012, and when New Zealander Rob Penney arrived as head coach later that year, his attempts to change the face of what Munster rugby looked like came to a fruitless end after just two years.
At the time, Penney's open style was a world apart from the traditions of old school Munster ball. In the 10 years that have passed since his arrival the game has changed enough for the idea of what constitutes 'attacking' rugby to be a more fluid concept.
When Graham Rowntree's new backroom team was assembled, it was notable that it contained three former Munster players. While Kyriacou only spent a short time on loan at Munster, both Leamy and Mike Prendergast know what it's like to win silverware with the province. Likewise, they can remember when Munster played with a chip on their shoulder.
"There's no doubt about it, we have a unique DNA and unique mindset and that comes out in Munster people all the time," Leamy said yesterday, as they prepare for their opening match of the season against Cardiff on Saturday.
In recent seasons Leamy has been involved with Leinster, working as a player development officer before joining the province's senior coaching ticket,
And while he admits the eastern province are a "high class" operation, he isn't looking to copy and paste ideas from one province to another. This Munster outfit must find their own identity.
"Just being back here straight away, you know it's different, you know the people are different and what works in Leinster doesn't necessarily work in Munster and I think that's what being a coach is, is understanding what can work here and what doesn't work and dissecting.
"Taking one game plan from Leinster and trying to put it into Munster, that's never going to work. That's fools gold.
"I suppose I'll lean on my experiences and my understanding of being here as a player, growing up here. I was 16 when I first played for a Munster team, a Munster schools team. I was 19 when I played for the senior team.
"I was exposed to a lot of what was really, really good about Munster through the noughties and I think there's loads and loads for us there to lean on and to develop and to flesh out.
"There's great values in this province and we'll go back to them but we need to develop the skills of the modern game in terms of catch-pass, tackle technique, breakdown work. We need to be really good in those areas as well.
"There's no doubt about it, even the hardest Munster supporters [know that] Leinster are high class and the people are high class, and in the building there's expertise in every corner and it was an amazing experience, just to rub shoulders with the likes of Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster, Felipe Contepomi and Robin McBryde.
"You take something from every one of them. There's just a huge amount of rugby knowledge in that group and how they go about their business, how they teach players and how they coach players, how they put in place practices to get better and better and better and how the micro detail is focused on and dissected and worked on, it's just hugely impressive.
"Look, there's no doubt I have learned a huge amount in Leinster. A huge amount. An awful lot of my beliefs in rugby are probably shaped by the people I met up there."
Finding the new Munster identity will take some time, Leamy warns.
Both Leamy and new head coach Graham Rowntree have spoken of the big changes to the way the province now train, with Leamy saying they're constantly making the players work at pace to simulate the fatigue of game time.
Expectations are high for the coming season, as they usually are in Munster, but Leamy says he and his fellow coaches have to prioritise the long-term.
"This isn't dressing it up or down, but the big thing is getting genuinely good performances out of the group of players that we have. There's expectations from fans, pressure from outside, but the big thing for us is to be as good as we can be.
"Talk of silverware, talk of anything like that; we need to be careful. It's not a lack of ambition, anything like that, it's a young group with a good group of coaches, all still finding each other and without asking for too much time to be bought the important thing is that we're growing, we're developing as a group and we're getting to a place where we can win in tough places.
"And it's going to take time. I don't believe that this is a quick fix or a silver bullet, it's a work in progress, day to day we're on the pitch, we're trying to train an awful lot differently to what I'm hearing we did before. We're trying to change habits and stuff like that.
"Listen, that doesn't happen in a week or two or a month, it takes five, six, seven months and there'll be ups and downs along the way, and that's going to be part of the ride, I believe.
"So being patient is a big, big thing and look, we'll know a lot by January, February in terms of where we are at but it is definitely a work in progress."
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Watch live coverage of Cardiff v Munster and Zebre Parma v Leinster (both 17 September), Stormers v Connacht (24 September) and Dragons v Munster (25 September) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
