Following last weekend's dress-rehearsal against the Glasgow Warriors, Thomond Park will get its first real taste of top-class rugby when Montauban visit Limerick on Friday night. The Heineken Cup is back on the menu and the reigning champions will be keen to kick-start their campaign with an accomplished performance.

Every manager manages in his own unique style. When I was in the hot seat of management I preferred to concentrate almost exclusively on my own team. I sometimes, indeed most times, found it difficult to be able to pass informed comment on any individual member of the opposition. I could pass quite pertinent comment on what the opposition team were doing but rarely was I able to individualise my observations.

On Saturday evening at 7pm, Thomond Park will reopen its doors to the Munster faithful. After an eighteen month facelift operation, the famous old ground will once again play host to some of rugby's biggest games.

Cork City's exit from The FAI Ford Cup in Derry last Tuesday was heartbreaking. The long journey North and the dedicated hard work during the game, and extra time, meant that losing out to Derry on penalties was very hard on the team and its supporters and made the journey home seem an interminable one for all concerned.

The Nemo Rangers club is rightly, if sometimes grudgingly, acknowledged as the foremost football force in Cork and, indeed, it can justifiably lay claim to being the most successful in the country. Its footballers have dominated the Cork scene over the last forty years and it now leads the Cork, Munster and All-Ireland club championships role of honour.

On Sunday evening, inter-provincial rivalries will be revived once again as the biggest domestic game of the season takes place in the RDS. Munster and Leinster will go head-to-head in the capital, with the added carrot of topping the Magners League being offered as a further incentive.

With two wins from their opening two games, Munster's quest for Magners League glory has started off on the right track. The hard-fought opening-day victory away to Edinburgh was quickly followed up by last weekend's resounding forty-four point defeat of Newport/Gwent Dragons.

It is important in every athlete's career that development never ceases. Whether one pays for fun, glory or money, the consistent impetus of improvement is without doubt the most influential aspect in the career of any individual that possesses talent.

This weekend Munster will play their first competitive home game since winning the Heineken Cup last May. Newport/Gwent Dragons will provide the opposition on Sunday evening as the Welsh side make the short trip across the Irish Sea to Cork. This is the first of two games in-a-row at Musgrave Park as the Cardiff Blues will be in town just six days later.