As is their custom, Team Munster are battening down the hatches in the build-up to another of those massive Heineken European Cup occasions which are their end-of-season trademarks.
In readiness for Sunday's semi-final against English champions Wasps at Lansdowne Road, yesterday's video analysis and training run at Cork Constitution's ground in Temple Hill was geared specifically on the English champions.
The only scare was a wrist injury to Peter Stringer, which obliged him to leave the session to have the injury checked, and passed.
After the hype and frenzy for the botched ticket sales last week, any session in Cork was always likely to generate a greater sense of calm (Cork tends not to do hype quite like Limerick); but so behind-closed-doors was the session that even the curtains in the room in which the media assembled were closed.
At this stage of such a long and arduous World Cup season, the emphasis is very much on quality rather than quantity. The full squad trained on Monday and yesterday, but will have just one more complete session tomorrow, before travelling to Dublin on Saturday.
"There's no need to overdo it, even though we haven't been together for a hell of a long time, but there's no point in spending time out there for the sake of it," explained coach Alan Gaffney.
By breaking up at lunchtime, they avoided the worst of yesterday's downpours, though conditions were still pretty miserable. "The weather could be a bit kinder and nicer, as is normally the case in Cork," bemoaned the Munster coach good-naturedly, like a true Aussie. "But otherwise it's been fine. We've trained with the full squad for the last couple of days and we can't complain."
If the truth be told, last Friday's Celtic League tie at home to Edinburgh with a much-weakened side was probably a nuisance. But although Munster have in effect had only two match weeks together since the completion of the pool stages in January, and they've been obliged to limit their output to just three sessions this week, one senses that the "first" team probably had a run-out or two last week.
The team will be announced at a joint press conference at the Citywest Hotel tomorrow attended by the coaches and captains, but both coaches could probably name them now with scarcely a moment's thought. It will be a huge surprise if Shaun Payne isn't retained on the wing ahead of Anthony Horgan in an unchanged Munster side.
In any event, the theory went (and was propounded by Gaffney, amongst others) that Munster would never be more rusty than they were in the quarter-final against Stade Francais, and that come Sunday they should have benefited significantly from that run-out.
Lapses in defensive concentration and organisation (most evident in the gaping hole left for the Ignacio Corleto try when Munster had built up an early, 17-0 lead), and in general levels of intensity, spring most obviously to mind.
"I just think a lot of our structure will be better," Gaffney says. "We scored some good tries, but our defence loosened up, and that was a bit disappointing for all the boys. It's an area we pride ourselves on, so to cough up four tries was a bit disappointing. It wasn't so much that the structure fell down, but individual first-up tackles were missed and maybe one or two guys broke our pattern, so we've worked on that a fair bit this week.
"Obviously you've got to vary it around; the way Stade play and the way Wasps play are entirely different. We've still got to mix it up, and while we're a little bit limited in preparation we're a lot more relaxed with each other, in that we're getting our play a lot more precise than it was against Stade."
All that said, Wasps' New Zealand full back Marco van Gisbergen is just as likely as Corleto to exploit any defensive gaps, as is Josh Lewsey, while scrumhalf Robert Howley is expert at finding space around the fringes of what Gaffney concedes is an exceedingly strong pack.
"They're going to be strong up front and we know that's where the contest is going to be, there's no doubt about that," said Gaffney.
An imposing, physical dominance up front by the Wasps pack has been the basis for some of their most eye-catching performances in last season's Premiership rout of Gloucester and the recent 31-5 and 34-3 thrashings of Northampton and Gloucester.
Whereas Stade provide more of an individualistic and sudden, off-the-cuff threat, Wasps are different, according to Gaffney.
"They create plays in different ways. They have a very astute coach in Warren Gatland and a very good guy. You can see where Gatty has brought them, and he's brought them a long way in two years. Great credit to him, and obviously great credit to the players themselves. Nah, it will be a great contest."
The best side in England over the last two seasons "by a long street", admits Gaffney, the coach added: "I think they are the most difficult side that we could have faced at Lansdowne Road this weekend. They are very close to being, and maybe are, the form side in Europe at the moment. Their form in demolishing Northampton and Gloucester in the last few weeks, who are running third and fourth in England, has been pretty impressive. We are facing a side very much in form."
The flip side of all that, of course, is that getting Wasps in a semi-final at Lansdowne Road looks altogether more preferable than in a final at Twickenham.
