Munster face Wasps for their opening Heineken Champions Cup game this Sunday in Coventry, with the province at sixes and sevens after their ill-gotten trip to South Africa in the United Rugby Championship.
They left Cape Town, and with it left several players behind in the hotel to self-isolate before they could return to Ireland. Concerns around the omicron variant and its potential effects left the club management no choice but to isolate those affected and travel home with their numbers lightened - without ever getting a game on their trip.
Those who did travel home - Head Coach Johann Van Graan included - have to complete their isolation periods and can not be involved in training or match day activities until that isolation is over ad thusly providing a head-scratcher for those in Thomond Park who make the calls on these matters.
A phone was picked up to the academy and now for several young players, instead of getting their first taste of senior rugby in the Pro14 (now the URC) away to Zebre, they'll enter the cauldron that is European rugby for their baptism of fire.
In all, 12 players are set to make their senior Munster debuts with eight members of the Munster Academy included. One of those academy members is Dunmore East native and former Waterpark player Eoin O' Connor.
Speaking to WLR Sport this week, Waterpark underage coach Tommy Bowe (No. Not that Tommy Bowe) says that his time with O' Connor goes back to when the now 6,7" lock forward was still splitting his time between hurling with Ballygunner and playing football with Gailltír.
"Now I'm one of the lucky ones in the respect that when Eoin O' Connor came down to Waterpark in 2005/2006; I was one of the coaches down there at the time to give him his first rugby ball. So I have a little bit of a sense of pride in that. Always a great young fella - willing to learn, do different things, always turned up and you could always depend on him."
For many years, Waterford has been one of the counties without strong representation on the province's senior team. Jack O Donoghue was the lone player flying the Deise flag between Thomond and Musgrave Park. That of course was until Ardmore's Thomas Ahern made himself known to Van Graan and started earning call-ups to the senior side and with it a senior contract for the 2021 season.
Bowe points out that while Ahern and O' Donoghue have made a name for themselves as Waterford's representatives at the top level, O' Connor is not far behind them, and he would be a lot further on his journey if bad luck hadn't hampered him.
"He was unlucky last year with a knee injury to put him out for a while. The downside was he couldn't play rugby but the upside; he was recovering with some good other senior rugby players and the little nuggets of information that he was getting when he was in the recovery or doing his rehab was was fantastic."
This week, as they prepare for Wasps, Munster's senior players have had to cope with a very different build-up compared to their normal European weeks. A training ground filled with players - some of whom were only born when Munster won the last Celtic Cup - and without the usual build-up elements that are normally deemed crucial i.e a head coach, means that their backs are well and truly against the wall.
Taking all those factors into account, and with Munster's history of doing it against the odds, don't be at all surprised if the kids go and do a number against Wasps. It would be the most quintessential Munster thing to pull out a big win when it seemed least likely.
With O' Connor, and the eleven other players who are set to make their debut primed and ready for the challenge, it remains to be seen can something really special happens this Sunday. According to Bowe, who's seen the Dunmore native develop from the early days, he won't be one surprised to see him rise to the occasion.
"Make no mistake about it, he's a very talented young man, and I expect him to do well tomorrow [Sunday] and I expect him to go on and do a lot more great things as well. He was a little bit in the limelight of Thomas Ahern because, in fairness, Thomas is an exceptionally good rugby player as well. Eoin was unlucky because he got an injury but make no mistake about it, Eoin O' Connor is a very talented young man."
