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If you buy into the idea that Munster need a shellacking in the league the week before they go into Heineken Cup knockout in order to get themselves right, then they are in a great place.
Two years ago, for example, they were tryless and not far off hopeless when losing to Leinster only to go out the next weekend and blow away Northampton with a four-try performance.
Mind you, they managed to reverse the result against Leinster last season and then held it together to beat Brive away a week later. So best not to read too much into those seven-day turnarounds. Focus instead on whether or not they have it in them to fix what was wrong against Leinster, because if Ulster are anyway decent then Tony McGahan's mob will need to be very good indeed.
By way of avoiding more damage at the set-piece, the coach has ditched Damien Varley for Mike Sherry, in what will be only his fifth start this season. Anthony Foley was quick last week to imply that it wasn't a can to be carried only by Varley, but the selection suggests McGahan has lost patience on this one.
"There was poor execution, poor knowledge of calls, poor lineout calling, a whole ream of them," Foley said of the things that went wrong last weekend. "It's something we have gone about rectifying this week and making sure everyone is on the same page, and it wasn't one individual. Normally the hooker gets it or one of the lead second rows gets it, but it was a collective f***-up for all intents and purposes. We got to the bottom of it and we fixed it and hopefully we can move on."
Yes, but at what speed? The second row pairing of Paul O'Connell and Donnacha Ryan is not built to last 80 minutes. Ryan hasn't played in three weeks and O'Connell's layoff goes back two weeks before that. That means springing Donncha O'Callaghan from a heavier bench than last weekend, but one that still has limited propping support in Marcus Horan and Stephen Archer.
Ulster's overall cover is lighter still, and closing the gap between their starting line-up and replacements is an ongoing issue for them. They like the idea of being able to throw Paul Marshall into the contest and watch the impact he makes, but Munster will be glad not to see him there from the start, with Ruan Pienaar alongside him at 10.
For the full house today the least they expect is a full-frontal instalment of what has been a fractious relationship over the years.
"It's there," Foley says of the rivalry that sparks between the provinces. "All you have to do is play once up at Ravenhill against them and you've a fair bit of get-back when they get down here. We've had a few feisty encounters against them, both up there and down here.
"They came down here a few years ago under Matt Williams and beat us. We've beaten them a few times up there. For years when I started out playing we couldn't win in Ulster and they had to take us to Queen's before we beat them. It was massive at the time but when we tog out and run out at Thomond Park we don't have a divine right to win. You've got to earn it so I appreciate where they are coming from, if we were going up there we'd be going up there to win.
"No team will turn up in a European quarter-final and throw in the towel. They're coming down here and they've got a lot of quality, a lot of international players and they'll be coming down to do a number on us. We've got to front up and be better than we were last week."
If it's neck and neck going to the last, you'd back the home team to jump clear. But only if they can rein in Ulster from the start.
Munster v Ulster,
Sky Sports 2, 1.45
