At least they know exactly what is required if they are to get there by climbing one place into the top six qualifying zone. Unlike those above them, Munster are the only contender to finish with successive home games - Edinburgh in Cork on Friday week followed by the Scarlets in Limerick on Saturday May 7.
That Scotland's capital team and the most westerly of the four Welsh regions just happen to be occupying the last two European berths immediately above Munster make those fixtures doubly significant for all concerned.
Winning both ought to guarantee a top-six finish for Munster and renewal of the Champions' Cup passport - easier said than done given their erratic form of late. Who could have imagined it would come to this after they had started the season by winning six of the first seven Guinness PRO12 matches before, during and after the World Cup?
If they miss out, the Red Army will need look no further than their hitherto unsung neighbours for one reason why. Connacht's rarest of doubles, clinched in Galway last Saturday evening in a manner that left no room for argument, means they will make their debuts in the Champions' Cup next season, irrespective of Munster's fate.
There was a time, not that long ago, when the provincial rivals could not have been further apart. In May 2008 when Munster regained what was then the Heineken Cup at the expense of Biarritz in Cardiff, Connacht finished rock bottom of the forerunner to the PRO12, the Magners League.
Between then and now, one constant has survived in an ever-changing game. John Muldoon was captain of Connacht then and he is still captain of his native province now, still achieving the kind of local victories that kept eluding all his predecessors.
Back in the day when the Inter-Provincial Championship used to be the biggest event in Irish rugby outside the Five Nations, Connacht managed to beat Munster three times in more than half a century - 3-0 in 1953-4, 20-16 in 1979-80, 17-12 in 1986-7.
The victory margin having inched up from three to four and then five, Bundee Aki's acrobatic corner try at Thomond Park last November raised the figure to six. At the Sports Ground last weekend, Muldoon and his men, not least Niyi Adeolokun, put it through the roof, multiplying the number by three-and-a-half to 21.
It was typical of Muldoon that in the immediate aftermath of scoring 29 unanswered points to dispatch Munster 35-14 he should pay tribute to those who had stuck by their team, more through thin than thick.
''We've had a lot of tough times,'' he said by way of understatement. ''So it's nice to see a smile on the faces of all those who've followed us over the years.''
While Munster will be relieved enough to finish in the top six, never mind the top four, Connacht will not settle for anything less than a home semi-final in the play-offs for the Final. Nor should they, not after coming this far.
Securing it will require winning their last match of the regular season, in Galway on May 7 against none other than the defending champions, the Warriors. Who knows, but from this distance it could conceivably be a dummy run for the Final itself, at Murrayfield on May 28.
The holders had been gathering momentum over the last two months, a run which they took into over-drive to engulf the Scarlets in front of their own fans in Llanelli. An eighth straight win, as orchestrated by Finn Russell, puts them in position to break a club record by making it nine against Zebre in the next round.
Ulster took immediate advantage of the Scarlets' tumble, displacing the Welsh region in the top four as reward for having matched the Warriors try-for-try with seven of their own, in Parma against Zebre. The occasion marked the return of the PRO12's all-time leading try scorer.
Tommy Bowe, in action for the first time since damaging a knee during Ireland's World Cup quarter-final defeat by Argentina in Cardiff six months ago, wasted no time resuming normal service. Two more tries took his tournament total to 64 with the promise of more to come.
How Leinster cope with him in Belfast in the next round will have a critical bearing on who plays who in the play-offs. An Ulster win would enhance their prospects of a home semi-final and put the current leaders in some danger of dropping down to third.
Their bonus-point win over Edinburgh at the RDS set the trend for a weekend when the six Guinness PRO12 matches produced a grand total of 42 tries, an average of seven per game. Every fixture over the last two rounds, without exception, will have a bearing not just on the top four but who finishes in the top six and who doesn't.
The last two laps in the race to make the play-offs (top four) and the Champions' Cup (top six):
1st Leinster (68 pts): Ulster (away), Benetton Treviso (home).
2nd Connacht (68 pts): Benetton Treviso (away), Warriors (home).
3rd Warriors (66 pts): Zebre (home), Connacht (away).
4th Ulster (60 pts): Leinster (home), Ospreys (away).
5th Scarlets (58 pts): Dragons (away), Munster(away).
6th Edinburgh (53 pts): Munster (away), Blues (home).
7th Munster (53 pts): Edinburgh (home), Scarlets (home).
8th Blues (52 pts): Ospreys (home), Edinburgh (away).
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