Looking at the sea of red at Lansdowne Road on Saturday, it was impossible not to draw a straight line back to the 2006 semi-final when the province’s supporters had colonised the same patch of land for another European semi-final, but this wasn’t a continuation of that so much as a new dawn.

Big European occasions may feel like a Munster birthright. This would be a day for growing pains.

Only nine of this squad had featured in their last appearance at this stage, when they went down to Toulon by eight points in a competition that we still knew as the same old Heineken Cup.

Aeons ago now.

It would be another two weeks before news of Tyler Blyendaal’s signing was announced, Darren Sweetnam had only just made his ‘A’s debut a few months earlier and retirement was another two years and a bit down the road for Paul O’Connell.

The province had two years of decline and doubt ahead of them before Rassie Erasmus would perk things up again. Saracens at that time?

They were already two years down the path of progress that would end with them winning a first European Cup title this time last year.

Erasmus was straight up on Saturday when he admitted that the occasion had maybe gotten to his team and that Saracens were possibly 15-20 points ahead of where his charges are right now. He could have used a different metric to frame that gap.

They are at least three years further down the road than them too.

“There has been a huge evolution in our European fixtures,” said Brad Barritt ahead of their defeat of Wasps in last year’s semi-final.

“It has gone from qualifying to getting through the pool stages to quarter-finals to semi-finals to a final and, again, to a semi last year.

“We have definitely spoken about this season being our time. We have paid our dues, we have learnt our lessons. By no means is it going to win you the game but we feel those experiences over the past four season are going to stand us in great stead in these big fixtures.

“There’s that sense and an understanding that we know what we are about. We know we can dig ourselves out of tight situations. The big learning curve throughout our European campaign is that you need to find ways to win. Often it is a different way to what you expect.”

It’s worth looking back now at where Munster stood 12 short months ago when Barritt said those words.

Defeat at the Sportsground in Galway that very week left the Irish side with virtually no wriggle room to spare if they were to even earn a place in this season’s Champions Cup. A PRO12 play-off spot was already well beyond them.

From there to where they are now was a journey travelled at rugby’s equivalent of the speed of light and any hope that they could usurp the European club game’s most complete side foundered on rigid tactics, an absence of adventure and a handful of poor individual performances.

That’s all part of the process, too.

Erasmus will learn more from this than anyone. Or should anyway.

Jaco Taute’s heft and explosiveness in the Munster midfield was a major asset on the heavy winter pitches but the sight of Francis Saili jinking his way through the Saracens line in the last quarter here demonstrated the fact that teams need an ability to pick locks as well as break down doors when the tracks harden.

The players will benefit from it, too.

“What gets us through is our past experience of losing tight games and being in situations we didn’t know how to get out of,” said Saracens’ No 8 Billy Vunipola after Saturday’s game.

For Munster, this is a journey that is only just beginning.