Last Saturday was another great day for Munster and yet another entry into the ever increasing chronicle of accomplishments with that win and the manner of its attainment in Castres.

Now it's on to Thomond Park tomorrow for the next assignment against Bath and the promise of another memorable and hopefully productive match. This Munster team is indeed really special, with talent allied to indomitable spirit and a superb back-up management team. What a service they are rendering Irish rugby. The performances last season were reflected in the subsequent composition of the Ireland team and the transformation in the fortunes that ensued. That was one very important bonus, but there were other benefits.

The interest in the side and the desire to see the team play extends way beyond the regular rugby enthusiasts. They have added a new dimension to the game and lifted enthusiasm to a new level. We saw some of the same two years ago when Ulster's marvellous European adventure ended in triumph in Europe.

People doubted if there would be long-term benefits and there was a feeling that once the afterglow of victory had receded, not much would change from the norm. Well quite a lot has changed. Take as an example the attendances at Ravenhill when the Ulster team plays.

In the recent past, when would you see a youngster wearing a provincial rugby jersey. Now in Munster and Ulster you see them in their hundreds if not thousands.

Rugby has always held a very special place in the lives of the people of Limerick. There rugby has long been the game for all the people.

Cork, too, has long been a stronghold, if not to the same extent as Limerick. The "full house" signs now go up at Musgrave Park as well as Thomond Park when the Munster side plays. There has never been such interest in or enthusiasm for rugby.

And how encouraging it is to see such concerted effort and money now being expended to bring the game to new areas and to bring youngsters into rugby who do not go to rugby-playing schools.

This is a crucial weekend in the European context. Leinster got a very worthy and deserved win over Biarritz last Friday night - now they must win in Northampton if a challenge is to be sustained. There is plenty of talent in that Leinster side, but too often they fail to deliver and when the pressure comes on, they wilt. It is vital that this trend is reversed.

The capacity is within the team to do very well; it must be allied to a spiritual determination. It would be very nice, too, if Leinster got the same volume of support accorded to Ulster and Munster. They must earn that by consistent performances. Consistency has not been a Leinster characteristic.

I was in Vicarage Road last Sunday and, after 65 minutes, had every reason to believe that the Ulster side was in with a fine chance of getting what would have been a great win over Saracens. Ulster led 25-21 with 25 minutes to go and then paid a huge price for mistakes and a failure to make two excellent attacking positions pay.

Saracens turned on the style in the closing 20 minutes once they led 31-25. A win over Toulouse on Sunday is now imperative for Ulster and no teams are better than the French at taking advantage in lapses of concentration of the kind we saw on Sunday.

After the near miss the previous week, Connacht's display against Neath was as costly as it was disappointing in the Shield. A revealing weekend lies ahead in Europe.

HOWEVER important what happens on the field and the huge interest and excitement it can generate, there are, too, elements of the game and the contributions that people have made that have been highly significant and play a very important part in the propagation of rugby. In that regard, a man who for so long wrote extensively on the game, recorded the great events and the human interest stories that are embraced in all sport, left us last week.

Last Saturday morning, Munster and Irish rugby lost a great friend and a passionate advocate with the death of Dave Guiney.

Dave had a lifelong love affair with sport and has left an indelible imprint on, and made an immense contribution to it as a very distinguished participant, champion athlete, Olympian, journalist and author.

His sporting tastes were truly all embracing, his knowledge remarkable. Whatever the sporting pursuit or wherever the venue, be it Lansdowne Road, Croke Park, Wembley Stadium, Semple Stadium or in some far foreign land watching the Olympic Games, he felt privileged to be present and totally at home.

He had, too, a great regard for the ethics of sport and great romance with it. That never wilted from the days when as a youngster he first set out on the foothills of the sporting eminence he attained as an athlete, through the evening of his age to the very end of his full and very fruitful life.

The many of us fortunate enough to have shared his friendship and been beneficiaries of his generosity of spirit through the years, will miss him greatly. But gratitude for what he contributed in so many respects will be his memorial. He was a former chairman of the Rugby Writers of Ireland and, at the time of his death, the honorary president of the association.

However radically the game has changed in some respects we must never under estimate or under value the importance of the club scene or what the clubs have given to the game in this country. St Mary's College, the reigning All-Ireland League champions, have given some great players to Ireland, some very worthy administrators and no fewer than 100 trophies have been won.

The St Mary's club is currently celebrating its centenary. To mark that, its history has just been published. It is a very worthy publication. It was written by Fred Cogley, another man with the right sense of values and one who has made an immense contribution to rugby. Fred played for the school and for the club and his involvement extends back over 50 years. For him writing the history was a labour of love that he has very faithfully discharged.