Once upon a time, Munster v Saracens would have been the marquee game of the weekend, but things have changed on Champions Cup Mountain.
It certainly appears, despite the European pedigree, that their combined tally of five titles won't be growing this season.
Few pundits or fans seem to be spending any serious time considering either of these teams when it comes to who will lift the trophy in the Principality Stadium at the end of May, a strange enough take on two sides who won their respective domestic titles the season before last.
In stark contrast to how eliminations in the pool or knockout stages would have been seen a decade ago, if and when these teams depart, there won’t be any outrage or consternation, merely acceptance that they are not currently mixing it with the heavyweights: Leinster, Toulouse and La Rochelle.
While Ulster were the first province to win the Heineken Cup back in 1999, it was Munster who captured the public’s imagination as the competition took off in popularity in the noughties.
Heart-breaking semi-final and final losses leading up to two memorable title campaigns in 2006 and 2008 created a red army, and Munster and European rugby became synonymous.
Then a steady decline.
Munster have lost seven semi-finals, two quarters, three last-16 games and failed to qualify for the knockouts on four occasions since that famous victory over Toulouse in the 2008 decider.
This downward trajectory crossed paths with today's opponents as they were on the way up.
After the Toulon triple crown between 2013 and 2015, Sarries won three of the next four titles to establish themselves as top dogs, while they also picked up four Premiership titles between 2015 and 2019.
While there’s an asterisk against the domestic honours won by Saracens, there is also a measure of resentment about their European success.
The breach of salary cap rules between 2016 and 2019 was so egregious that they were automatically relegated to the Championship after the 2019/20 season.
In the same period, Munster lost two semi-finals to Saracens, while Leinster lost the final in Newcastle in 2019, and a quarter-final the following year.
With no salary cap in place in European competitions, neither side had a legal argument to make but fans of both provinces are entitled to a sense of grievance.
The clubs themselves have always maintained a dignified silence, preferring to accept their defeats on the pitch. All four games were deservedly won by the London side.
After relegation to the second tier, where there was no salary cap, Sarries were able to hang on to most of their superstars: Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola, Elliot Daly and Jamie George all helping them to an inevitable Championship title in 2020/21.
There was a change of ownership in 2022 when Nigel Wray sold his controlling stake to a consortium, which included 1995 World Cup-winning captain Francois Pienaar. The price reported at the time was £32million.
It didn’t take them long to re-establish themselves at the top table in England and Mark McCall, who stayed on as head coach throughout the problem years, brought them to a Premiership final in 2022 before they were crowned champions the following season.
On the European front, after beating Leinster in an empty Aviva Stadium in 2020, they were knocked out in the semi-finals by Racing 92 before missing out on the next campaign due to relegation.
Winning the Championship meant qualification for the Challenge Cup in the 2021/22 season where they fell at the semi-final stage to Toulon.
Eventual winners La Rochelle ended their Champions Cup hopes the following year in the quarters, while there was a meek exit at the hands of Bordeaux in the round of 16 last season.
The team that rocks up to Thomond Park this afternoon will have an almost completely new look to it from when the sides last met.
In a previous tournament format, Munster and Saracens played a home and away double header in December 2019, just as the pay cap scandal was reaching a crescendo, with Wray stepping down as chairman at the start of the next month and the relegation confirmed soon after.
Gone are Farrell and the Vunipola brothers from the club, with McCall naming just four players who started the last meeting in Thomond: centres Alex Lozowski and Nick Tompkins, while George and Ben Earl are in the pack.
Saracens, with Kiwi out-half Fergus Burke now running the show, started with a home bonus-point win over Bulls and came away from Stade Francais with a second victory.
There are five survivors in the Munster starting XV: Mike Haley, Rory Scannell, Conor Murray, Niall Scannell and Tadhg Beirne all resume hostilities as the hosts bid to build on the win over Stade and the loss to Castres.
"They're not a team that are box-kicking and and squeezing you but they're capable of being very physical as well.
"This is a litmus test of where Munster are now because everything is settled down post-Rowntree.
"This is a European game, players are rested, hopefully you see the best side of Munster."
Munster's, and indeed Saracens, best will be a pale shadow of what it once was but when the lights go on there's still enough magic in the old competition to deliver a belter.
