Leinster v Munster: Johnny Watterson on how Leinster's backs-oriented game suits the Ireland centre

Don't feel too jealous of the squad of Irish players who spent last week a great deal closer to the equator than the rest of us. Notice that none of them on their return were sporting a sun tan and that wasn't due to an Eddie O'Sullivan directive to stay away from UV light but a lack of blue skies over the Spanish resort.

Shane Horgan would have been more disappointed than most. The Leinster centre and wing has been recovering from a hip injury picked up just before Leinster played Bourgoin in France almost two weeks ago. His brief for the week was to relax his body and his brain, and to recuperate. Easily done on a lounger.

Leinster have not yet selected a squad, but the unbronzed Horgan is quietly confident that he will line out against Munster tomorrow in the RDS, possibly in his old position on the wing if Brian O'Driscoll starts the match.

"The trip to Lanzarote was rest, recovery and some conditioning. That was the goal," he says sitting in Leinster's new training facility in the Riverview centre just a few hundred yards up the Dodder river from their Donnybrook grounds.

"We'd a couple of days where we had complete rest. The good thing about it was that it was quite player specific. If you needed more rest you took it. If you needed speed and fitness that's what you did.

"Because of my hip I had a lot of time off. I was in the pool quite a lot and did weights. There was a lot of individual tailoring. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great. It's always nice to get a bit of sun, but we only had one day. We were a bit unlucky with that. But the real role of the Lanzarote trip was to take guys out of the week-to-week stuff, mix it up a bit and get a bit of a rest.

"I mostly concentrated on upper body weights. That was the regime I had to follow. I couldn't take any weight bearing through the hip. It was all about looking after it (the hip) with the physio. So I suppose I'm feeling a bit rested now. Hopefully, if I come through these couple of days I'll be in the pot for selection again."

Horgan was in Belfast for the game against Ulster on St Stephen's Day and liked what he saw. A fraught ending with only 14 men in blue shirts grinding their way out of their own 22 with ball in hand was certainly a reflection of building confidence. That the team toughed out a hard win was a step forward.

"I always felt reasonably confident that whenever we scored those two tries we were going to win the game," he says. "We always looked as though we could score tries. We've been going up there for years and it's very, very hard. You've got to savour victories in Ravenhill because they don't come very often."

The running style of game that Cheika has imposed - and that the squad are still trying to perfect - suits the Horgan style. An athlete, as well as being powerfully built, the constant off-loading and running is actually the way he wants to play the game.

"I think it is a backs-orientated game where you are trying to move away from staid set-pieces and you're trying to keep the ball alive. I think all of the players like playing that. As an individual you are always looking for the offload and people are expecting you to off load as well. It's something I like doing."

Munster's monopolising of ball by their forwards and robust back line tackling has been their strength for many seasons. Horgan doesn't see them changing.

Their policy of playing their game better than the opposition play theirs has worked too often to abandon in the face of a redesigned Leinster team.

"Munster will be as Munster always are," observes Horgan like an old sage. "They will be concentrating on themselves. I don't think they will be unduly concerned about the way we are going to try and play, but will concentrate on what they do when they have the ball and how they play as opposed to stopping other people playing.

"They're the favourites. They are the team that have the form and are the favourites historically."

And already a little double bluffing has begun.