Thus far, Munster have started the season in fairly strong shape.
But on Friday night, they suffered their first setback of the season as they fell to a 37-10 defeat at Glasgow Warriors on Friday night.
That result puts Munster second in Conference A of the Guinness Pro 14 behind their Scottish opponents.
But even at this point of the season, Munster are keeping an eye on being primed for action when the European Champions Cup kicks off in October when they will have most of their frontline internationals back in the fold.
"Although we always knew it was going to be a tough gamble against Glasgow away from home, the plan was always looking at Europe and thinking not to play your best fully fit team every single week and trying to rotate whilst not losing games," said Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus to Oisin Langan.
Munster's Tyler Bleyendaal against Glasgow ©INPHO/Craig Watson
"So we didn't get that right. We got hammered, not just lost the game."
Citing Simon Zebo as an example of a frontline performer who will be starting a game soon, he added that if the leading players at the province had already been introduced, "In two weeks time, those guys would have played three in the bounce, so hopefully we peak while not losing games".
Picking out some positives, he continued: "We found out about certain combinations and that's a positive but we got smashed by 37 points and that's a negative. And also we took the gamble and now we know we've got our senior guys back fresh. It was an away game which we lost, so you're right, we learned a lot of things, not just about our tactics but individuals."
Erasmus also touched on Munster's problems with place kicking, with none of Munster's 10 scores against Glasgow coming from the boot.
"If we played better, there wouldn't be so much pressure on our place kickers, if we play better overall," he said, emphasising that out half Tyler Bleyendaal and centre Rory Scannell are "class players".
"When you go through dips like that, it's only a matter of time before you get out of that. But the team should get them out of that by playing better."
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