Although, by necessity, it should be the least of their concerns - and they certainly don't need the additional baggage - Irish rugby could do with a few pick-me-ups over the next two weekends from their proud provinces. In times of need, nothing has resuscitated the spirits quite like the Heineken European Cup.
Munster, especially, have been down this road before. Following the disappointing 1999 World Cup, it was Munster - inspired by Keith Wood, and with Mike Mullins and David Wallace in their pomp - who almost single-handedly regenerated Irish rugby by progressing through the pool stages of that season's European Cup, memorably beating Francois Pienaar's high-flying Saracens 35-34 away and 31-30 at home either side of completing a double over 1999 finalists Colomiers.
Munster then provided the backbone of a rejigged Irish team (after a 50-18 defeat to England) which beat Scotland 44-22 and won in Paris, so kick-starting the post-Millennium rejuvenation of Irish rugby generally, before going on to reach the 2000 European Cup final in Twickenham.
Their deeds since, reaching the knock-out stages every year and the semi-finals or better in all bar two of the last eight seasons, have done as much as Team Ireland to maintain the feel-good factor in Irish rugby. Similarly to the 1999-2000 season, there were plenty of doom-mongers around in the wake of Ireland's 45-7 and 30-14 defeats to New Zealand and Australia in the autumn of 2005, all the more so after Munster's opening 27-13 defeat away to Sale.
Underlining the similarities to this weekend, Leinster had also lost at home to Bath on the opening weekend, but as it happened both went all the way to that all-Ireland semi-final showdown, with Munster going on to reach their holy grail.
On the face of it, you'd imagine once again Declan Kidney and the rest of the management would be part psychologist this past month or so, though returning to the warmth, humour and slagging of the Munster family would be therapeutic in itself. "They're good professionals, they're seasoned professionals. They know what they have to do. They've had to get back down to work after the highs of Triple Crowns or European Cups in previous years. You can overstate these things too. They've been good pros.
"I've always thought that first and foremost they're people. Everyone reacts differently to every situation. We're lucky we know each other very well and some things can be left unsaid . . . You can over-analyse this too and I'm not going to do that. It was disappointing, everybody put in a huge effort, there was no lack of effort, but sometimes these things happen and instead of trying to over-analyse ourselves, you just get on with it."
Nevertheless, Kidney has had to re-acclimatise his dozen World Cup contingent - broadly broken into two groups - on a gradual basis. Where possible, the players with limited or no involvement in Ireland's four games in France were brought back sooner; Alan Quinlan and Frankie Sheahan have all been involved for the last four games, and Brian Carney and Peter Stringer for the last three.
Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan, David Wallace and Denis Leamy for the last two, which Marcus Horan would have done but for injury ruling him out last week, and by the Edinburgh game last Saturday, Ronan O'Gara had, of course, made an encouragingly positive return. In other words, all but the sidelined Paul O'Connell are now back in the Munster fold. "It was really only last Thursday that we all came back together," said Kidney.
Munster haven't been tearing up trees, though their form was even worse heading into the Tigers' lair in Welford Road on opening weekend last year. A hitherto off-colour Wasps, somewhat similarly, only had five of their World Cup stars back last Sunday for their restorative comeback win over Gloucester but may have another three back this weekend.
Even a cursory glance at Munster's pool, with Clermont Auvergne having come within minutes of winning the French championship, and Llanelli the standard-bearers in Wales who wrenched away Munster's hold on the trophy in last season's quarter-finals, demonstrates how much tougher it is to win the cup than was the case even two years ago. "You only have to look at the amount of money the English clubs especially and the French clubs are spending on bringing in players. Fifty per cent of the roles of the provinces is to bring players through to national level and the other 50 per cent is to do as well as we can in Europe and in the Magners League."
"Nine years ago everybody was saying: 'do we have any chance in Europe?' Maybe there was too much hype in the middle of that period and now unfortunately it's all doom and gloom, so our approach to it is a bit manic. It's a great occasion to go to the Ricoh Arena. Ten years ago we'd have given our right arm to go there and play the European champions. I think if you lose the fun of the occasion then you probably limit your own chances of playing to the best of your ability," says Kidney. "If we do that we'll be there or thereabouts, and that's all you can ask for in sport.
"We cannot afford as a team, or as a group of supporters or as a country to get greedy. There are huge challenges there, we're well able to take them but we're basically a light heavyweight fighting in a heavyweight division."
One that's well able to punch above its weight though.
