When Keith Earls shovelled an offload his way with the line in stretching distance, Peter O’Mahony likely thought of nothing other than getting his Munster side level in their Guinness PRO14 clash with Connacht.

But there was added significance to the flanker’s score, as he held off the efforts of two Connacht men to dive over for what was the 500th try of this Guinness PRO14 campaign.

In what has been a season so far blessed with unprecedented feats of scoring, this is the fastest 500 chalked up in the tournament’s history.

A testament to the free-flowing rugby that fans of the Guinness PRO14 have now become so accustomed to, it took less than 87 matches to reach the milestone this time around, compared to 91 last season, and 132 back in ²⁰¹²⁄₁₃.

With 477 scores dotted down before start of play in Treviso when Benetton got things underway for the weekend against Glasgow Warriors, the jury was out over when the fabled 500th would be scored.

A hard-fought 20-17 win for the Italians saw five tries added to the total, with Ospreys and the Cardiff Blues tagging on three more in their derby match-up.

A trio of tries in Scarlets’ win over the Dragons, with Leinster adding six of the seven scored in their win over Ulster left the total standing at 498, all-but confirming the hunches of those who predicted the 500th to land in Connacht’s clash with Munster.

For the statisticians on-hand, the average of just over 5.8 tries per game is slightly down on last year’s figure, where a bumper second-half to the season saw numbers fly.

Were the scoring to carry on at the same rate, you can expect around 885 tries for the campaign, just shy of last year’s 898, but after O’Mahony’s landmark effort, the race is now well and truly on to topple that total.