Provinces languish in rugby recession

Well, that was fun while it lasted. I suppose it really began in the winter of 1999/2000 when Munster twice beat a star-studded Saracens team by a point in the group stages. They had reached the quarter-finals the previous season but it was those victories and the run to the Heineken Cup final which followed that really began one of the great prolonged success stories of Irish sport.