It's time for Munster to dip into the well once again as talk of a crisis gathers pace. However, you write these giants of the game off at your peril, writes GERRY THORNLEY

AS THE respective coaches and captains of the three Irish provinces sat alongside one another at the top table in a first floor conference room in the Shelbourne Hotel – and the sun shone gloriously over St Stephen’s Green – it seemed like any other ERC launch to their season. Except that all has changed; changed utterly.

The accompanying video was a painful reminder to Tony McGahan and Paul O’Connell that the Heineken Cup was now in the possession of their Leinster counterparts immediately to their left. But what Leinster did to them last Friday, when effectively eating them alive, was far more pertinent.

Munster have had hidings before, but few of their fans will have recalled such a lack of intensity and physicality, and certainly when so much pride was on the line. This was Munster’s heaviest defeat to a provincial rival in over half a century.

Of course, we’ve been here before with Munster, and rumours of their imminent demise have always proved premature. They were written off prior to the miracle match against Gloucester in 2002-03 after losing 23-8 away to Perpignan. In ’05-06 some fairly esteemed pundits were forecasting they wouldn’t qualify from their pool after a thumping away loss to Sale in round one and a failure to pick up a bonus point in either of their back-to-back wins over the Dragons, at which point they could have been backed at 28 to 1 to win the Cup.

Whereupon they put together successive bonus point wins away to Castres (46-9) and at home to Sale (31-9) as a launching pad toward winning the trophy for the first time.

The following season they went into their opening Heineken Cup defence away to Leicester having lost heavily at home to Edinburgh a week before – their fourth defeat in six games.

There was idle talk that by finally reaching their Holy Grail Munster were fatted calves. They had been sated. Ronan O’Gara may even have heaped further pressure on them when he expressed his belief in Irish rugby players. Whereupon he landed the long-range injury-time penalty which secured a deserved win.

Only last January the 37-11 defeat when virtually at full-strength at home to Ulster prompted more talk of a crisis. Whereupon they won their next 10 matches in a row to effectively secure the Magners League title and reach the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup.

In time-honoured fashion, the players have already begun to reproach themselves, with O’Connell publicly questioning their attitude last Saturday. Just as tellingly, he and McGahan spoke aloud yesterday of Munster’s need to return to basics, that in seeking to expand their game they had overlooked the core principles which had made them strong.

This can always be the risk when an enlightened skills coach such as McGahan and a highly driven group of players with leaders such as O’Connell and O’Gara want to expand their rugby playing horizons. So perhaps this will merely prove a well-timed jolt to their considerable pride and Northampton may pay the price.

After all, it was only last April – less than six months ago – that they had been hailed as the best team in Europe again following their 43-9 quarter-final win at home to the Ospreys, a week after putting Leinster to the sword 22-5 at Thomond Park (when, by the by, Leinster were being written off yet again, and for the second time last season). And essentially they are the same squad, one even supplemented by the arrival of Jean de Villiers.

There are a couple of caveats, though, aside from the worrying evidence of last Saturday night. For starters, you wonder how many times this core group of warriors can keep on dipping into their well of resilience. In this latest time of crisis, they may well return to the old firm in the backrow of Alan Quinlan, Denis Leamy, who apparently should be fine, and David Wallace, with perhaps the world’s most settled secondrow partnership and most of the other usual suspects save for John Hayes.

Paul Warwick looks sure to be accommodated, perhaps at fullback, with Keith Earls moving to the wing at the expense of Denis Hurley. It still is a team which has a very strong all-round look to it. But, although not helped by their unusually poor work rate off the ball, O’Gara wasn’t on top of his game last Saturday, and as much as any of them, he has been through plenty this past year. All in all, they ain’t getting any younger, and they’ve rarely dug so deep on so many fronts as they did last season. And therein lies the real rub. For unlike all those previous examples of their bouncebackability, this time they’ve little rugby under their belts.

In addition to the delayed return of the Lions and the disruption caused by Ireland get-togethers, limits have been placed on the number of games all frontliners may play in each “window” of the season and the plan is to make this restriction greater next season.

Marginally less hit by the Lions tour, Leinster have got over these problems, helped as they’ve been by an impressive hard-nosed edge and defensive sureness which they’ve rarely, if ever, had before. Munster have been hit additionally by injuries and illness.

However, both are almost hopelessly short of match practice when compared to Northampton and London Irish, each of whom have had three pre-season outings and five league games relatively unhindered by Martin Johnson and the RFU.

Whether they like to admit it or not, the Irish management and the IRFU have placed all three Irish provinces at a disadvantage compared to their opening English opponents.

One can well understand why the 2011 World Cup has been prioritised by the Ireland management and the Union, but they would do well to remember that it was the provinces’ success in Europe which kick-started and then sustained the rejuvenation in Irish rugby. Certainly, to take the continuing presence of Munster and Leinster in the knock-out stages for granted would be a major error.

Away from home, shorter on form and collective match practice, Munster look the most vulnerable of the three this weekend. Yet, more than anything, it is that intangible Munster X factor, that knowledge that Munster are at their most dangerous when down.

Time to dip into the well once more.