Only for RG Snyman’s viking frame hanging over this fixture, one may be inclined to say that Liam Turner’s name sticks out like a sore thumb.
In the company of James Lowe, Hugo Keenan, Garry Ringrose, Caelan Doris, Tadhg Furlong, Josh van der Flier and others he could be mistaken as a thorn in a rose bush under Croke Park’s Saturday night lights.
But Leinster’s dreams in recent years haven’t been crushed by squad members such as Turner.
None of the above started when Turner was tasked with a daunting and taxing regular season trip to South Africa.
By the time the season-ending, trophy drought-extending defeat to The Bulls came around in a return to South Africa, each and every one of those names started.
Turner was nowhere to be seen, forgotten in a blue mass they call squad depth.
At 25, he’s far from a veteran, but he’s had to bide his time. On Saturday, he gets a shot:
“I’ve been supporting this province since I was six years of age. I was at the ‘09 semi-final between Leinster and Munster with my dad at Croke Park.”
It would be impossible to ignore Snyman’s presence in any sense of the word though.
Jacques Nienaber knows him like no other. His fitness will be imperative in giving Leinster an added dimension this season.
Munster will do all in their power to derail him.
The lock’s hit on Craig Casey during the summer’s South Africa-Ireland test will only have served to further rile the southern province’s spectators after a less than popular transfer across enemy lines.
But as we saw with Jack Grealish and Declan Rice in the Aviva Stadium, 50,000 men’s boos won’t deter one man’s quality.
A full Croker throws another 30 odd thousand on top of that figure and tees up a clinker.
But Munster’s injury issues will likely mean this one is a bridge too far, no matter how much they fancy it.
Leinster by 12.