Yet the French champions left Limerick satisfied that, despite their defeat, they had limited their old European rivals to just three tries and made life difficult for the two-time champions ahead of their reunion six days later at Stade Pierre Fabre.

Home victories with five match points rather than four are viewed as essential to ensuring progress to the knockout stages. Yet Munster nevertheless managed to open up a three-point lead over Gloucester at the top of Pool 2 with three of the six matches to play.

And Stander believes a short trip down memory lane to some darker days should shine a brighter light on his team’s efforts in beating the Top14 champions by 25 points. As recently as December 2014 and 2015 Munster were beaten home and away by Clermont Auvergne and Leicester Tigers respectively in rounds three and four, reverses which contributed to exits from the competition before the knockout rounds. So when asked if there were regrets over missing out on a bonus-point win at the weekend, the backrower’s response was unequivocal.

“No. Look, a few years ago we couldn’t even win home games in Europe so to get a home win in Europe is massive,” Stander said.

A bonus is a bonus, you get it when it’s there but to win was great. The first half was kind of a weird game but it was physical and demanding, and in the second half we came out and fixed a few things and got a few tries.

Stander was one of those three try scorers and, in truth, a fourth try should have been scored to secure the bonus point as Munster fluffed their lines in hard-earned scoring positions. Stander accepts their inaccuracies that left the game poised at just 6-0 at half-time for all the Reds’ dominance but credited the pressure Castres applied in mitigation.

“That first half was the tough one, they made it difficult. There were a few unforced errors but they enforced their gameplan and it was difficult for us to get out of our half. It’s just the game they have: we made mistakes and we could have handled better but some of those errors were forced by them.”

It certainly will not be getting any easier in southern France tomorrow evening, with Castres desperate to get their pool campaign back on track, and make amends for letting victory slip in last season’s pool, when Munster escaped with a 17-17 draw in round one.

Stander is certainly expecting a very different Castres performance from the one delivered at Thomond Park on Sunday.

“They’ll probably use the ball a bit more. Their game plan is their game plan, and they’ll probably enforce it.

They enforced it last year down there when we played them and made it difficult for us to exit from our own half. We know it’s going to be a physical game, they’re going to play as they did last weekend, kick the ball and make us play out of our 22. It’s all on us, and how we can work with that pressure.

If the niggle between the sides that was apparent at Thomond Park last weekend is any indication, Munster can also expect their patience to be tried at Stade Pierre Fabre. Stander is in no doubt.

“It will probably spice up. When we played them twice last year that’s what we got so I think that will spice up for sure. That’s something that we don’t really take much notice of, we just make sure we concentrate on our jobs. There are a few boys who squared off (against the Castres players) but it’s just emotions coming up. They try to frustrate you but you need to concentrate on yourself and make sure you do your job.”