This article is from page 95 of the 2008-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 95 JPG
IT was the victory that finally lifted Munster into the patheon of the great sides of Europe. Munster’s triumph against Biarritz in 2006 registered them among a host of teams who had produced one great year. The two final defeats mattered for little, they needed a second Heinekin Cup tro- phy to secure their place among the elite, to be called a truly great team.
For the 65,000 Munster support- ers that crammed into the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, this final meant everything. Winning well or win- ning ugly didn’t matter to the horde of red who sang, cheered, screamed and lifted their heroes to the final whistle.
They just craved a win by however means necessary and were made ex- perience the full spectrum of emo- tions as Munster clung on to their
slender lead in the final stages.
The raucous roars of the Munster faithful willed them to victory, con- tinually drowning out the attempted cries of the 5,000 or so Toulousains who made the trip across the chan- nel. Equally, the hordes of Munster fans’ total silence at times had a sim- ilar effect on the French side no more so than for Jean-Baptiste Elissade’s first kick as the deafening silence ap- peared to unnerve him.
For Munster, they are used to such support from their loyal fans. The tension, the emotion, the pressure, the nerves, even the occasion did not sway the team’s unrelenting focus on the grand prize. The did it the hard way, coming through the so-called group of death before knocking Eng- lish champions Gloucester and even Alan Gaffney’s Saracens on their way to their second Heinekin Cup success. Two wins in three years
makes for satisfying reading. And they couldn’t have done it without the 16th man. Or perhaps it should now be 17th considering the 65,000 plus who swarmed the Millenium Stadi- um and its environs at the weekend.