From day one in the job, Graham Rowntree and his coaches made it clear: bringing Munster back to where they belonged would take time.
Two games into his tenure, the pressure was already mounting. A frustrating opening day defeat to Cardiff was followed by a rare loss away to the Dragons in Newport.
More concerning than the results were the performances, but ahead of their Round 3 game against Zebre at Musgrave Park in October, Rowntree was bullish that they were on the right track.
"I have absolute belief in the body of work we have gone through this summer," he said after those two opening defeats.
They got their win that weekend, although the quality of the 21-5 victory against Zebre raised more questions than answers, while an equally disappointing display in their 20-11 defeat to Connacht a week later left them staring down the barrel of a potentially disastrous season.
It's been seven months since that defeat at the Sportsground, and Munster are looking a lot more like themselves; a fifth-place finish in the BKT United Rugby Championship regular season ensured Champions Cup qualification, and they've a puncher's chance in this Saturday's semi-final against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium. Had you offered that scenario to most Munster fans back in October, they'd have taken it in an instant.
They're considerable underdogs to pull off a shock against the double-chasing Leinster, but barring a drubbing in Dublin this weekend, the province will likely head into the off-season with optimism for their future.
To compare last season and this season side by side, it may seem like little progress over 12 months, but a look under the bonnet reveals some big differences.
For a start, watching Munster is simply a more enjoyable experience now than it was 12 months ago. Under Johann van Graan the province were always capable of playing attractive rugby, as we saw in their thrilling Champions Cup games against Toulouse in 2021 and 2022, as well as their most recent win against Leinster at the RDS in 2021. But too often under Van Graan and Stephen Larkham, their game was designed around nullifying the treats of the opponent, rather than imposing their own.
When Munster looked lost in the early rounds of the season, their inability to run through multi-phase attack at pace without passes being over and under-thrown or simple balls dropped was an indictment of the previous coaching regime.
As a first time head coach, it was fair to wonder how he would deal with the man-management aspect of the game, putting his own stamp on the side, and ultimately having to make unpopular decisions.
Those skills have developed consistently over the course of the season, in large part down the the pace Munster are now training at. In January, the province's coaching team invited members of the media to watch them train at Thomond Park, a fast-paced session with very few breaks, testing the players' ability not only to make good decisions under fatigue, but also to execute them.
There's a greater trust placed in the forward artillery to get on the ball and move it on, while wide players such as Calvin Nash and Shane Daly have been given more freedom to come in off their wings and look for work. Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has often said he doesn't like his wingers to be "tidy", and it's likely both Nash and Daly will be on his radar heading into the World Cup training camp this summer.
"The attacking rugby, I've enjoyed it and it's not as much of the chasing of box kicks," Nash said earlier this season.
"As wingers with Prendy [Mike Prendergast], we're allowed to float around a lot more and get more involved and Prendy has kind of helped me with my involvements in the game as well, that would have been a work-on of mine since I was younger, just trying to get involved in the game in attack more, just offer [myself] up."
It's been noticeable, particularly in the second half of this season, how often one of Nash or Daly will drift across the pitch and link up with each other; of their 12 combined tries this season, eight of those have been in Munster's last six games.
Rowntree's shown on a number of occasions this season that he's not afraid to ruffle some feathers. He dropped Conor Murray from his matchday squad ahead of a crucial Champions Cup game against Northampton Saints in January, while Keith Earls and Simon Zebo were also left out of the 23 that weekend.
Nash will miss this evening's semi-final with Leinster due to concussion, but he's enjoyed a breakthrough season, starting all five Champions Cup games, even at the expense of more high-profile players.
Since joining Munster in late 2019, Rowntree's popularity among the playing group, particularly with the forwards, has been consistently referenced, but that popularity was certain to present challenges as he changed role.
As a first time head coach, it was fair to wonder how he would deal with the man-management aspect of the game, putting his own stamp on the side, and ultimately having to make unpopular decisions.
Rowntree's shown on a number of occasions this season that he's not afraid to ruffle some feathers. He dropped Conor Murray from his matchday squad ahead of a crucial Champions Cup game against Northampton Saints in January, while Keith Earls and Simon Zebo were also left out of the 23 that weekend.
Zebo has played just six games all season, none of which came in the Champions Cup, while he was left out of the 31-man squad that toured South Africa for the final two games of the URC regular season. Twelve months ago it would have been inconceivable for the province's record try scorer to be a healthy scratch for such season-defining games.
The new coaching group have had to make big calls right across the team. Joey Carbery lost his place in the team firstly to Jack Crowley, and has since been relegated further outside the matchday day, including for this evening's semi-final against Leinster.
Their big-money signing Malakai Fekitoa simply wasn't cutting it in the first half of the season, and was locked out of the team for six games across November and December before working his way back into the side. The Tonga international will be moving on to Benetton at the end of the season, but he's come good for Munster in the second half of the season.
It will be a blow to lose this version of Fekitoa, but with Sean O'Brien and Alex Nankivell joining Antoine Frisch in their midfield, they've been able to spread their budget to bring back John Ryan next season, the veteran tighthead having been immense in his short spell at the province this season.
The injury crisis they faced in October and November could also come back to benefit them in the long run, with the likes of Edwin Edogbo, Patrick Campbell and Ruadhan Quinn all stepping up and seeing more gametime this season than many would have expected.
If season one was about putting the pieces in place, Rowntree seems well placed to stitch them together.
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