A Heineken Cup quarter-final line-up without Munster will certainly look strange - it is the first time in 13 years they have failed to make that stage of the competition - but they can have no complaints after being well beaten by Jonny Wilkinson's Toulon.
The French side battled their way to a convincing 32-16 victory and while many will focus on the kicking of Wilkinson, Toulon’s victory was based on much more than Wilko's left boot.
Pierre Mignoni was outstanding at scrum half, using excellent vision and equally effective execution to cleverly chip the ball over the Munster back line for Tongan-born Japanese international Christian Loamanu to go over.
He then went on a magnificent cross field run that created a huge overlap on the right hand side for England's Paul Sackey to score. His influence on the match shouldn't be understated.
Wilkinson, as ever was the reliable kicker, hitting 22 precious points that rewarded Mignoni's good work.
The result was a scoreline that shocked the whole competition and anyone following the Livescore Goalwire would have been surprised by it. Munster's record run in the Heineken Cup stretched back to 1998/99 and while many in the media were tipping this result as an end of an era, many inside the club will resist panicking or ringing any reactionary changes in the wake of this game.
After all they remain in the hunt for the Magners League once more and although this result is undoubtedly a setback, it presents an ideal opportunity for the coaching staff to take stock and assess what went wrong. That said, the latest rugby scores reflect the balance of European rugby may be shifting elsewhere.
For Toulon the run will continue as are guaranteed to finish top of Pool Three and await the quarter-final full of confidence.
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