Regardless of the result, this was always going to be a day loaded with emotion and nostalgia. For the second time in his career, Declan Kidney was bidding farewell to Munster on the occasion of a Heineken Cup final at the Millennium stadium. For Jim Williams, whose first season with the province culminated in that same 2002 Cardiff final, the sense of severance was even more acute — the next time he sees the Paul O’Connells and David Wallaces, he will be the Wallabies’ forwards coach and they will be opponents.

It can only have been a difficult day also for Anthony Foley. A loser here six years ago, an ecstatic winning captain in 2007, he has said his goodbyes in recent weeks and must have felt detached yesterday despite being there as a quasi-managerial presence. At least he will remain in the system as coach to the Munster under-20s next season. This is typical Munster recycling — Shaun Payne, another stalwart, takes over as manager from Jerry Holland, who will retain an important involvement as one of Munster’s five-man provincial team management committee.

Holland and Garrett Fitzgerald, the chief executive, soaked up the emotion yesterday but for weeks they have been looking to the future and the job of maintaining Munster’s position of eminence in Europe. In an increasingly competitive market, this won’t be easy.

Top of their to-do list has been finding a replacement for Kidney and the indications are they have found their man. According to a senior Munster source, an announcement is “imminent”. The coach’s identity? The safest bet is 35-year-old Australian Tony McGahan, currently employed as defence/backs’ coach by the province.

While initially Kidney was thought likely to lure McGahan to the national set-up, this presupposes a job as assistant Ireland coach is more attractive than a No 1 role with one of the two biggest club teams in Europe. McGahan has already interviewed for the Munster job.

He has a few advantages over other candidates such as Michael Bradley, Niall O’Donovan and Eddie O’Sullivan. McGahan has been with the province since early 2006 and thus played his part in that year’s Heineken Cup win. He is highly rated by the players and giving him the job would allow Munster to appoint from within.

There has been talk that the IRFU might “impose” Bradley, currently with Connacht and a coach groomed for high honours. However, the union has allowed the provinces autonomy on coaching appointments in the past and they are unlikely to start meddling in this instance, given Munster’s record of success.

O’Donovan is well qualified for the job in many respects but his choice as assistant coach for Ireland’s tour next month feeds the perception of him as a natural No 2. By ending things civilly post-Six Nations, O’Sullivan has left the door open to return in some capacity at some stage but surely knows he needs a break from Irish rugby first. Besides, he’d hardly fancy the notion of ringing up his old pal Kidney to inquire about getting players released.

Once the coach is appointed and has his team of assistants, one of the next issues is a succession strategy for a team that has already changed considerably since 2006. After that win, the priority was in replacing an ageing back-line. Munster have done this with considerable success; Ronan O’Gara and Ian Dowling were the only backs to start both finals.

Quite how to replace the 31-year-old O’Gara remains a headache and not just for Munster, though Paul Warwick will do a reasonable job for the province when that time comes. The other concern is the turnover of a pack with an average age of 30. Donnacha Ryan, Tony Buckley and Darragh Hurley are all highly regarded but there isn’t exactly a stampede behind them. It says something that when Munster have gone in search recently for the one extra foreign heavy hitter permitted by the union, they’ve been looking for a back-row forward.

The emergence of Ryan, Denis Hurley and Tomás O’Leary is encouraging, though Ian Sherwin, Munster’s newly appointed academy manager, would like to see local talent identified and nurtured quicker. “Of this year’s five academy leavers, three got development contracts, another is being negotiated while Sean Cronin has got a full-time contract with Connacht, so productivity is good,” he says. “However, we need to make sure we identify quality players early and work on them. Ideally, we’d like to start getting kids at 13 or 14, like everyone else but the system isn’t in place yet to do that. We’re really only picking them up as they leave school.”

Sherwin has received CVs from youngsters in Fiji, New Zealand, the US, France, England, even Ghana, which shows Munster’s growing appeal. He is surely more concerned that the province’s under-20s finished bottom in this year’s interpro series and only just avoided the same fate last season.

Holland admits to a degree of anxiety over the shortage of quality emerging and points to the growing gap in standards between the professional and club games. “You always look at what’s happening underneath the pro game and the evidence isn’t encouraging,” he says. “We’ve always relied on the clubs to produce players but the standard of club rugby just isn’t good enough now. That’s why we’re looking for the AIL first division to be cut to eight or 10 teams. It would increase quality, generate revenue for clubs and allow us to do away with the provincial “A” games altogether. If things remain as they are, we’re going to lose more players to the UK because they have no meaningful platform to show off their talents.”

The Munster brand continues to grow at a rapid pace. According to marketing manager Glyn Billinghurst, replica jersey sales are already ahead of targets and now “in the top few club jerseys in the world”.

The notion of a global brand is accentuated by the fact that there will be another pre-season game against the US Eagles on Saturday, August 23 at the 40,000-seater Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut, followed a week later by London Irish playing at Musgrave Park and three months later by the arrival of the All Blacks for the official opening of the new 26,000-capacity Thomond Park, for which more than 12,000 season tickets and 3,000 10-year debentures have already been sold.

Munster are officially in the heavyweight division. The task, says Fitzgerald, is to continue making the weight. “It will be a whole new challenge next year. Declan will be gone, Jim will be gone, Foley will be gone, so it’s an opportunity for new people to establish themselves as leaders within the group and within the province.

“You’re constantly looking at how the opposition are going, how they’re strengthening their squad and at the same time there’s the challenge of producing our own players and trying to maintain our Irishness and our Munster style of player and person.

All I can say is it’s a bloody competitive business.”