“You’re Champions for a week, then you’re back to work and then you’ve got a target on your back for all next season, because people want to depose you,” explained the commercial and marketing executive, in an interview with the Irish Examiner. “It’s about how we build on this.” 

 Commercially at Munster the building process had been doing just fine, almost in spite of the historic southern hemisphere win over the Stormers in the URC Grand Final last month.

The decider in Cape Town came at a particularly hectic period for the commercial team, where the matter of renegotiating 17 expiring sponsorship and partner contracts were advancing ahead of next season.

Three of those renegotiations are just left to be ‘dotted and crossed’, and that will leave 30 partners for Munster Rugby within its vast commercial portfolio, with a financial value worth, by our analysis, of €5m.

Those assets run from headline partners Adidas and Bank of Ireland, through to the Tier One sponsorships – including Guinness, Laya, DHL and Shannon Airport – and almost two dozen more across the board.

What actually happens on the back of a Championship winning season will tell more in the coming months as brands currently outside the tent begin to look at Munster in a way they hadn’t previously.

So what does the successful transfer of silverware into the commercial portfolio look like and how quickly can that translate?

“I think in general, what success looks like, is that it’s never immediate,” explains Kavanagh.

“Yes, there are bonus structures in some deals (to be paid to key sponsors as per contracts) which is immediate and they have all been paid, and that’s great for us.

“But looking over the next 12 months it’s a slow burner.

“There are a lot of the renewals which were done before we won the trophy, so obviously there’s no opportunity to go back and revisit or renegotiate those deals - it’s done and we are very appreciative of the support.

“Have we had any new sponsors on the back of the win? Well I mean the win was (a few) weeks ago, so it takes a little while.” “It will build over next season.

“Yes, there’s a halo effect but there is no immediate jump in fortunes and revenues on the back of it.

“We still need to go out and beat the bushes and you still need to sell and market yourself and to generate those revenues, so it’s not like there’s new commercial partners banging the door down.

“Yes there’s maybe one or two but you still have to do your work and it just gets slightly easier.” Something which has been asked by friends and associates of Dave Kavanagh’s in recent weeks is how the events of a month ago makes his load easier to bear.

“I’ve been asked this question a lot over the last three weeks: ‘Does this make your life very easy now?’ – no, it makes it slightly easier,” he adds.

“There might be a view that we’re all dancing around the kitchen at home chanting ‘ ‘Championes, Championes…’ we’re not, I think the over-riding sense around the club and for me personally is one of relief.

“Okay, so the monkey is off the back now so we’ve shown that we can do it but it’s now very much of the next chapter and building on it and that’s for the team, the pro department, the women’s game and the commercial team, and how we start to build our revenues on the back of that.

Still there are some more commercial partners he’d still like to get in – a Technology Partner is one that Kavanagh is eager to achieve - while on the flip side his team has brought in PAQIT (IT partner) and medical services brand, UPMC.

From where Munster sit now, not quite basking in their newfound glory, but certainly enjoying the glow, is a far cry from where they came from at the beginning of the playing year.

“We had a less than ideal start to the season,” he agrees. “Those first seven weeks were tough for all of us and you would think that commercially, particularly from sponsors and partners, that we’d be under pressure and that we’d be getting a lot of negativity.

“We tend not to get that, to be honest, our partners tend to be with us for the long term. They’re not fair-weather partners so actually there was not that kind of pressure coming on, albeit as the head of commercial, you’re always very conscious that it might at any point.” 

 The more immediate indication of success comes with the healthy state of season ticket renewals, although always a positive area for Munster, with the club expecting to hit, or even surpass, the magic 6,000 number again.

Next season’s numbers are currently trending at just above 90 per cent towards selling out, and moving upwards month-on-month, while hospitality sales (around 300-500 covers per game) and box renewals, have been extremely strong.

“With ticketing, we’ve had a really good year – we’re over our target more than last year – hospitality went really well this year, so we don’t see this fickleness or fair weather support that you might get from the corporate sector, generally,” he adds.

Munster Rugby have a number of fixtures to keep them busy before next season, which begins after the Rugby World Cup, with tickets on sale for the Men’s game against Leinster in Musgrave Park on 8th September and a double clash with Men’s and Women’s Barbarians on 30th September in Thomond Park.