Munster defence coach Denis Leamy says the BKT United Rugby Championship is in a better place than ever thanks to the addition of the four South African sides in recent seasons.
The defending champions prepare to welcome the Stormers to Thomond Park this Saturday, in a repeat of last season's final.
Munster caused a huge upset when they handed John Dobson's side a rare defeat in Cape Town last April, and repeated the trick a month later when they defeated the reigning champions in the final.
The URC is now in the third season of its current guise, with the Stormers, Bulls, Lions and Sharks having joined up in 2021.
Their arrival has caused a shake-up in the balance of power in the league, with Leinster's dominance ended by the Bulls and Stormers in 2021, while the Stormers made it back to the final a year later.
Munster's title win in May saw them end a 12-year wait for silverware, with a homecoming in front of more than 10,000 people at Thomond Park.
And Leamy, who won two Champions Cup titles with the province in 2006 and '08, says their URC title ranks "right up there", given the quality of the competition.
"I think as a competition it is really brilliant," the Munster defence coach said, ahead of Saturday's rematch with the Stormers.
"I believe that trophy, having to go to places like South Africa, beating a really good Leinster team and going to Glasgow to play a phenomenal, physically challenging team like Glasgow, to get ourselves into position in the season itself... I think it ranks right up there, I really do think it was a win of huge value to the province.
"I really feel that the competition brings a lot of kudos with it."
After Jack Crowley, Craig Casey and Jeremy Loughman all returned to action in recent weeks, Munster could welcome back more of their Irish World Cup contingent this week, with Peter O'Mahony, Conor Murray, Tadhg Beirne and Dave Kilcoyne all available for selection.
The Stormers, meanwhile, will be without their World Cup-winning Springboks Manie Libbok, Deon Fourie, Damian Willemse and Frans Malherbe, although they will have the rest of their first-team regulars available, notably Springboks Evan Roos, Joseph Dweba and Warrick Gelant, the latter of whom has re-joined the club following a year in France with Racing 92.
"I would say they are one of the best teams in the league, regardless of them missing their Boks and they've got a number of them to come back. These guys have been in two finals over the last two years, they won one of them and came very close to winning the other.
"We've come up against them a lot, we've analysed them a lot, they're incredibly talented. As individuals they are scary fast, they have unbelievable passing ability in terms of moving at speed.
"So they present difficulties around defending fractured play, then you look at their power game, their scrum, their maul, their ability to pound you through big, big forward carries, it presents so many challenges."
And with more and more international players beginning to populate the teamsheets, Leamy is hopeful that they will see a big crowd at Thomond Park this Saturday evening, their first game in Limerick since the season opener against the Sharks.
"We have a huge amount of fans spread out right around the world and not necessarily do they fill the stadium but there will be huge excitement about this game," said Leamy.
"I'm not sure what numbers we're expecting at the stadium but I get the feeling organically that the amount of people looking for tickets is up an awful lot more than it was for the Dragons, for example.
"So there are certainly people out there looking for tickets. The World Cup has gone through the system now, it's over a few weeks at this stage, the appetite for domestic rugby is really starting to pick up.
"I hope we have a good crowd in Thomond Park, I've no doubt that they will bring a huge atmosphere. It will be a quality game but look, there will also be a huge amount of people tuning in from across Munster and the diaspora across the world."
Watch Sharks v Connacht in the URC on Saturday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
