Seamless transition.

That’s seem to be the message that Munster and Rassie Erasmus are trying to get across over the last few weeks. The South African is set to leave his post any time between now and January, but maintains the transition will be flawless and seamless no matter what.

Former Ireland and Lions captain Brian O’Driscolll is not so sure. Speaking in Dublin to promote BT Sport on the eir Sport Pack, O’Driscoll reckons the entire situation could be up being a dangerous distraction.

“There is a danger it will distract players because you will have one eye on who is coming in,” he said.

“It a strange circumstance to have a head coach leaving halfway through a season, I’m sure they’re working on a contingency. I don’t know who they have lined up, there’s lots of speculation about potential successors.

“It’s not an ideal situation to find yourself in having done four rounds of Europe and half of your PRO14 season, and then a new voice comes in and they have to continue with the same style of play. You can’t change that mid-season, but it’s definitely not a perfect situation to find themselves in.

“All their talk is that it will be seamless — I struggle to see how it will be seamless if you’re listening to one voice for six months and someone else for the next five.”

While like many, O’Driscoll understands why Erasmus is leaving to take a dream job in his native country, he cannot get his head around the six-month period.

“I totally get why he’s going, I don’t know why there’s this six-month period,” he said.

“Had Munster felt they were under too much pressure to find a successor over the course of the summer?

“You look at what happened with Leinster and it’s all worked out well, but Leo [Cullen] probably found himself in that role before his time, apparently because there weren’t a huge number of other candidates that were willing to up sticks and move family and everything in a very short period of time.

“Sometimes you need lead-in time for planning and perhaps Munster felt this was the better of the two options, letting Rassie see it through to Christmas and then bringing someone in who would be able to pick up the reins where Rassie left them down.”