Ronan O’Gara will inevitably garner the most intense focus, as one of the sport’s most intelligent and innovative coaches continues his journey towards what many believe will be a role at the pinnacle of his native land.

In the opposite coaching box to this son of Cork will sit an old comrade of days gone by, from Limerick but once a Munster team-mate, Mike Prendergast; his is a name of lesser renown in this country, but much more appreciated in his land of happy exile as a deep-thinking auxiliary coach to several French clubs before pitching up at Racing.

And then there are the players – three Irish internationals at different ends of their respective career spectrums, but all gilded with the same devotion to securing success that they may have hoped, and in some cases still hope, could have been secured in their homeland.

From Donnacha Ryan, the grizzled second-row nearing the end of his career amidst what for him would have always seemed like the incongruous razzamatazz of the capital club, to his one-time Munster wing colleague, Simon Zebo, to whom the glitz and glamour seem so utterly tailor-made.

And on the opposite side from them a fifth ex-Munster man, Darren Sweetnam, but one still teetering amidst the uncertainties of his profession’s capricious nature, playing for his future not only at La Rochelle, but at the game’s highest level, seeking a future in a foreign land seemingly denied him in his own.

All five harbour but one goal this evening in what guarantees to be an enthralling, epic encounter but this step on their journey reminds us that, for the Irish rugby professional, there are different paths to glory.

As much as it unites them, even in opposition, for there can only be one winner, it is also a reminder of some of the contradictions that underpin Irish rugby, for all its stellar achievements in this century.

And the ironies too, chiefly that it is often deemed a more righteous path for those wearing a coaching hat, rather than football boots, to pursue their passions on foreign fields, and be correctly lauded for doing so.

O’Gara is now one of the hottest properties in world rugby, having forged a unique career, beginning with tonight’s opposition, before embracing one of the best clubs on the planet, Crusaders, before returning to France. His departure from these shores in a seemingly depthless search for knowledge never precluded him from being recognised by his erstwhile employers, having been recruited a few summers back for a coaching gig under then Irish coach Joe Schmidt for an international summer tour.

Prendergast has never mixed in such circles, yet anyone you speak to in France will quizzically wonder why that has been the case; and yet since leaving Young Munster eight years ago, his coaching CV compiled overseas compares favourably with other lauded exiles such as O’Gara, Mark McCall and Conor O’Shea.

They have all pursued careers abroad and have been acclaimed for doing so and, with only 11 Irish coaches amongst the 42 professional posts currently occupied here, it can be argued that their loss to the game in Ireland has provided them
with bountiful opportunity to thrive elsewhere.

Whereas if you are a player, the international team, which you once proudly represented, seems to suddenly and almost disdainfully turns its back.

Zebo learned this painful lesson, when his international career was cruelly cut own in its prime, his apparent crime merely to temporarily forfeit the jersey of his province.

As he returns home to the belated embrace of his national coach once more as Andy Farrell announced a midweek thaw in relations, 27-year-old former Cork hurler Sweetnam was compelled to make a decision he would rather not when let go by Munster this year.

O’Gara offered the international a route back into the professional game, albeit presumably if he earns a contract after his three-month trial, the door to the international shirt will remain brutally slammed shut.

For an organisation like the IRFU, who pursue a policy of funding non-qualified Irish players to subsequently become qualified ones; disingenuous to some; others possess more virulent views.

Ryan is at the opposite end of the scale, nearing the end of his road and, ironically, now pondering life as a coach, too. Perhaps, even under his old mucker O’Gara.

He might have also preferred to stay at home but was deemed unfit for sustained purpose and has established a niche for himself in a league which cherishes its ageless locks.

Like his four one-time colleagues, French fields offer a chance for some personal redemption.

Only a cold heart would begrudge them.