Munster forwards coach Andi Kyriacou says his side will manage their time carefully in the coming days, as they head into another short week of preparation for Friday night's BKT United Rugby Championship meeting with the Emirates Lions in Cork.
The schedule hasn't been kind to the province in recent weeks, with a six-day turnaround between their interpro games against Leinster and Ulster over Christmas, followed by an even shorter five-day week ahead of the meeting with the South Africans.
Munster will once again be without their frontline internationals this weekend, and while they're yet to give their official squad update, Kyriacou says the appear to have come through a hugely physical game against Ulster unscathed.
"There's a few knocks, but we managed to get most people out on the field today," he said.
"The nature of those three games in 12 days that we're going through, is that we have to manage bodies. We're looking alright for the weekend in terms of availability of players.
"We just have to wait and see what our medics come back with at the end of the day, today.
"We've had a review day today from the Ulster match, a few fix-ups on the field, and then a bit of a high-intensity block towards the end of the session, to keep us in that mindset. Then it's all about recovery with the lads from this point on. They had a good recovery day yesterday in their own time, lads are good, they're in a good spot."
Munster come into Round 12 buoyed by their dramatic 15-14 win against Ulster, with Ben Healy's try and conversion in the final minute stealing a victory that lifted them up to ninth in the table, and right back in the hunt for the play-off and Champions Cup spots.
And Kyriacou says the nature of the win on Sunday could be hugely significant.
"The belief within the squad is something we're growing from the get-go. We've seen throughout the length of the season so far that there's improvements week on week.
"What's been really nice is that the belief at the weekend, sticking to the framework we're trying to play in, the belief made sure that we got over the line at the end of the game, and stuck in the fight for the full match.
"Our ball in play time was huge, 43 minutes, which is excellent and what we're striving for. We're happy as a coaching group. There's still loads of areas of improvement, and things we need to tidy up, but that's the nature of every game every week, you're always trying to get better."
Follow the BKT United Rugby Championship across RTÉ radio, TV, RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Watch live coverage of Connacht v Sharks (Saturday, 5.15pm) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
