For as uplifting a performance as last Friday’s was in the 38-20 bonus-point success against a now down-and-out Ulster, Munster still need a victory over Benetton at Virgin Media Park to ensure of knockout rugby this season and Champions Cup qualification for next term. With a mixed bag of results for their rivals in the race to the top eight finishing spots on which so much rides, and the top four spots sewn up, the contenders for the play-offs have been reduced to six clubs seeking places five to eight in the final regular season standings. And with only six points separating the Stormers in fifth on 50 points and Edinburgh in 10th on 44, the task facing Munster, wedged between them on the cutline with 46 and level with ninth-placed Cardiff, is crystal clear. The performance delivered in Limerick, motivated by a desire to send off O’Mahony, Murray and Archer in style, must be repeated in Cork. “I think it's really, really important we don't look beyond next week,” Costello said on Friday night, before wins for play-off rivals Edinburgh, Benetton, Stormers and Scarlets and defeat for Cardiff. “We came into this expecting to need two wins and we laid it out at the start and then we drew it back to one. "It was a derby, we knew they were as strong as they've been. Talking to Richie (Murphy, Ulster head coach) beforehand he felt it was the strongest squad he's had for a year and a half, that was the strongest squad we've had for a long time too and we even lost Oli (Jager) and Barnsy (Diarmuid Barron) during the week. "And we know that (against) the likes of Northampton who are having a great season, we know we can go toe to toe in those games away from home but tonight was about Thomond Park, it was about a performance, it was about trying to achieve something as a group. "But the job is literally 50 per cent done. It's half-time. We've got to go and have as good a week as we had this week leading into Cork and then we've got to finish the job in Cork, and then we've got a week to think about play-offs or think about travel arrangements. "But that will be irrelevant if we don't do the job next week.” Costello has one more chance to lean into the emotions of fond farewells, for it was clear the driving force behind Munster’s six tries to two beating of Ulster was to honour retiring the long-serving Archer and O’Mahony and the departing Murray as well as fellow veteran Dave Kilcoyne, who will not get the chance to play again due to injury. "Of course league tables are important, (but also) how much the group care for each other, how connected they are and how we want to make these occasions special. "This season, especially the last couple of weeks, hasn't been where we'd like it to be after a really good run before that so now it's about getting to the stage where we're able to win those big games when we're under pressure. That delivering under pressure is key and we if we do a job next week, we can look forward to the play-offs then. "But we'll give the boys hopefully a really good send off in Cork next week.” The one they got at Thomond Park, both out on the pitch – and not least as supporters raised the roof when O’Mahony scored the sixth and final try of the night on 58 minutes and then departed the scene shortly after - was special and Costello described similar post-match celebrations in the home dressing room. "We made it about that from the start of the week if I'm honest. We got Niallo (O'Donovan) as well, a legend at Munster, his last game as manager. And yeah, that's where we went tonight. "And it probably recognised the elements of our performance we thought were critical – physicality probably being the main one because I think that's how the emotion comes out and again doing justice to what it meant to the group tonight."