Asked to sum up his feelings after Munster ’s edge-of-the-seat, rollercoaster 35-33 derby win over Connacht which kick-started their season in front of 15,705 attendance on a pleasant evening in Thomond Park, head coach Graham Rowntree admitted that “relief” was his abiding emotion.

Graham Rowntree praised the character of his Munster side, after they came from behind on four separate occasions to produce a bonus-point 35-33 win against Connacht at Thomond Park.

As a starting point for the long season ahead, the 35-33 win had enough to encourage Graham Rowntree while his copybook will also contain plenty of notes to keep his players busy on the training pitch this week.

On an opening weekend of URC league action in which the largest winning margin across six round-one matches was a mere five points in Cardiff’s 22-17 victory over Zebre Parma, Munster and Connacht served up the sort of nerve-jangling,