Celtic LeagueGerry Thornley on the full-blooded rivalry between the Welsh and Irish standard-bearers

After their fourth meeting of last season, when Munster's 20-10 win extended their nine-year unbeaten Euro record at Thomond Park to 21 wins, the Ospreys coach Lynn Jones expressed the hope that his side would be drawn against Munster again in the Heineken Cup and have another crack at them in their Thomond Park fortress. Perhaps though, it's as well that didn't happen. We can have, eh, too much of a good thing.

The leading two teams in the Celtic League as well as rivals for the European Cup quarter-finals - inevitably this led to some ill-feeling between the sides. For starters Jones, engagingly candid and with a mischievous sense of humour, seemed to take delight in getting under Munster's skins.

After an early-season win over Leinster at home last season, by which stage they'd already beaten Munster 34-17 on the opening weekend, he proclaimed: "Not only are we catching them up (the Irish provinces) but we're going to surpass them."

Following a Celtic League defeat at Musgrave Park in December, Jones commented: "They are not infallible. They are not God's gift to rugby. They're just human beings like everybody else and they get things wrong if you apply a bit of pressure."

All true of course, but all grist to the Munster mill as well, and the rivalry had already been accentuated by the events at the Gnoll in October when Munster had beaten the Ospreys 20-18 in a taut European tie. Marcus Horan sustained five stitches courtesy of Richard Mustoe's trailing boot, the latter was cited and suspended, and in response the Ospreys cited Horan for racially abusing Tongan winger Elvis Seveali'i - a baseless charge that was summarily dismissed by a disciplinary panel and the ERC.

Blissfully, there was no fallout from the fourth head-to-head; and Jones was profuse in his praise of Munster.

"We've got to take this lesson and next year I hope we draw Munster again. There's always a great welcome here. A good choir out there. Dunno where you got them from," he quipped.

And yesterday he was reiterating those sentiments.

"Make no bones about it, they've got a better forward unit than Leinster. They play it tough, they play it hard.

"We appreciate how big an assignment this is for us. Munster were unbeaten at home in the Celtic League last season. The only thing they did not do last season was score tries and get bonus points. That could have cost them the league.

"The more you play Munster, the more you understand them and what they do well. They haven't got an expansive game but they keep the ball and they don't make mistakes. They do the basics well and they pick up their points from penalties. It's a good ethos."

With both teams missing their Lions frontliners, meeting so early in the season (and not again until May) the ill-feeling oughtn't to be as acute (for one thing Seveali'i has moved on).

But given these are the standard-bearers in Wales and Ireland, there'll still be an edge.

"Some of the incidents were unfortunate, but we move onwards," stated Jones. "Munster have some new players and a new management, and it will be interesting to see how they approach it. But I can't imagine they'll get too far away from what has worked for them over the years. But they are the top team in Ireland and I suppose we are the top team in Wales. The Irish gave the Welsh a bit of a kicking in the early days of the Celtic League, and I guess we're still hurting."

For his part, Declan Kidney is loth to think there might be any bad blood from last season.

"If you look at Leicester and Wasps last season, a similar thing happened there because they met five times. But I think that was last year and I don't see why it should carry over into this season."

As Kidney also stressed, there's a healthy respect between the sides, as has been evident in Jones's comments and those of Alan Gaffney last season and now Kidney's that the Ospreys are a might fine side.

"Welsh rugby is on a high right now and nowhere more so than at the Ospreys," Kidney added in deference to the excellent job Jones has done. And indeed if the latter saw Munster as something of a template, then Munster have reason to envy their upwardly mobile visitors.

Aside from the newfound riches that come with their new, 20,000-capacity, all-seater stadium, the Ospreys have shirt sponsors generating an estimated £400,000-plus this season. Worryingly, the Ospreys look to have the potential to grow more.

That Munster began their campaign at home to the Borders in Thomond Park and kept the Ospreys for Musgrave Park today might seem strange but makes sense from several viewpoints.

Denied European Cup rugby, Musgrave deserves the more attractive-looking opponents in the Celtic League. But this also serves to preserve the mystique of Thomond, where Munster have never lost in the European Cup. Why give the Ospreys or, say, Leinster (who haven't played at Thomond Park since 1995) additional experience of the venue or indeed an opportunity to obtain a morale-boosting win?

They're always thinking down there, and they know as well as anyone that the Ospreys are set to be a force for years to come.