And the good news for Munster fans is that, like the other Irish provinces, they will benefit from having a clutch of international players back in tow thanks to Ireland coach Andy Farrell’s decision to release 14 players from his Six Nations squad to play for their teams in the Vodacom URC.

Craig Casey, Gavin Coombes and Dave Kilcoyne will be the trio of players that bolster the Munster team that was beaten by an agonising two points by Glasgow Warriors on the astroturf surface at Scotstoun Stadium last weekend.

There’s a bit of an over-exaggeration of Munster’s plight among media pundits, which is perhaps a consequence of the announcement in December that this is coach Johann van Graan’s last season with the red clad team before he heads to take up a new challenge at English club Bath. Former Munster and Ireland legend Keith Wood led the charge made by critics before Christmas that because of the announcement, there was a lack of commitment.

Although they lost this past weekend, there has been little evidence in the past two months of that lack of commitment, and Munster took quite a rich vein of form into their battle with the Warriors. Nonetheless, it should be clear to Van Graan by now that the longer his team remains off the pace in the race for top spot on the overall log, and continue to occupy their current position outside of the top four, the pressure will increase.

Even their log position is a bit distorted though, for even though Munster are only fifth, they are still just six points behind leaders Ulster - and they have a game in hand.

Ulster will bank on themselves retaining top spot as they go to Wales for the Sunday game against Dragons in Newport that will close this round of fixtures, and they do have a raft of players back from international duty in the form of Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Michael Lowry, Tom O’Toole, Nick Timoney and Kieran Treadwell.

But it could be what in Test cricket parlance is described as a moving weekend (day in the cricketing example) at the top of the table.

Jordan Larmour in action for Leinster.

Leinster, one point behind Ulster in second position and ahead of the Warriors only because of points difference, host the Ospreys in Dublin on Saturday. Leinster underlined their depth last week when they easily beat Edinburgh, who were in third position going into the game, and this week they will be boosted by the availability of international squad members Ryan Baird and Jordan Larmour.  

This game should be closely watched by the leading South African team currently, the DHL Stormers. The Cape side has made an impressive surge up the log from near the bottom to seventh, and they could move to sixth if they beat Connacht next week and the Ospreys lose to Leinster, which they should do given that Leinster are so rarely vulnerable at their home ground of RDS Arena in Dublin.

There are currently just three points separating the sixth placed side from the seventh, and the Stormers have a game in hand on the Welsh team, in fact two games in hand after the weekend round. Fifth placed Munster, with seven more points after the same number of matches (30 against 23), are a bit more distant for the Stormers, but Munster do have a tour to South Africa and a potentially perilous trip to Loftus to play the Vodacom Bulls in their imminent future.

The knowledge they will be travelling to the highveld summer soon should put more pressure on Munster to win against Edinburgh as they could do with a bit of a buffer in order to ease some pressure.

With next week’s games involving South African teams in mind, it is going to be interesting to see whether some of the Irish internationals released this week will be available for that. Connacht, who host the DHL Stormers in Galway, get Jack Carty and Dave Hefferman back for this weekend’s visit to Wales for their clash with the Scarlets.

Like Farrell, Wales coach Wayne Pivac has also released players from his Six Nations squad to play Vodacom URC fixtures this weekend, but in the Welsh case there are just six players coming back into the club system.

Cardiff will benefit from having centre Uilisi Halaholo, who has been asked to prove his fitness ahead of Wales’ next Six Nations clash against England at Twickenham, back for their home game against current wooden spoonists Parma Zebre on Friday night, along with Rhys Carre and James Ratti.

Elsewhere, Ospreys’ Gareth Anscombe can feature against Leinster and Scarlets scrum-half Kieran Hardy will be available to face Connacht on Saturday, and Ulster hooker Bradley Roberts could play against the Dragons at Rodney Parade on Sunday.

Weekend Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixtures (SA times)

Friday, 18 February:
19h35: Munster v Edinburgh (Limerick)
19h35: Cardiff v Zebre Parma (Cardiff)

Saturday, 19 February:
17h00: Leinster v Ospreys (Dublin)
19h35: Scarlets v Connacht (Llanelli)
19h35: Glasgow v Benetton (Glasgow)

Sunday, 20 February:
14h00: Dragons v Ulster (Newport)