Brief claims to red flesh and blood

As far as the family tree goes, the closest I can get to claiming any sort of Munster citizenship is that the maternal grandfather's house was allegedly camped on the Tipperary-Offaly border, with the claim that 90 per cent of it lay in the southern province.

However, the clan's suspicion is that it was the other way round and old Phil Fogarty's assertion had as much to do with the fact that Tipp's hurlers were much better than Offaly's, at least in those days.

On Saturday, I believed him, God rest his soul. It was a day that everyone, even the Kiwi in the RTE studio, wanted to be a part of Munster's odyssey.

The most tenuous link was sufficient to allow anyone who so desired to jump on a bandwagon that was more like a runaway steam engine. Today, there would be no party poopers. Or so the build-up to the game led us to believe.

Tom McGurk reminded us, as if we needed reminding, of how difficult our kin in the southern part of state had found it to get travel tickets out of the place.

"Airline tickets and ferry tickets have been like the proverbial hen's teeth," the RTE anchorman informed us, although Bill McLaren, over on BBC, told us that "thousands (of Irish people) have poured over," which was probably his subtle way of telling us that they had enjoyed themselves in the process of making the trip to Twickenham.

Even George Hook played his part, or at least he tried to. The RTE analyst had become something of a lucky charm to Munster by nominating the opposing team to win, match after match.

On Saturday, George wasn't going to let us down. "Ireland expects me to say Northampton, and I won't let the national down. Northampton to win," said the bold George.

Only thing was, he didn't sound convinced. For Heaven's sake, the gods of fortune couldn't possibly believe him. McGurk didn't seem to believe Hook either. "You'll still be burnt at the stake," he told him.

The favourites tag had been attached to Munster, whether they liked it or not. In BBC's run-up to the kick-off, however, Matt Dawson, the injured Northampton player who took time out to turn studio analyst instead, gave an insight into his team's approach to the game.

When asked how he'd reacted to losing the English Cup final a couple of week earlier, Dawson replied: "Very miserable, broke a couple of doors as we went into the changing room."

Now, the same Dawson had earlier told us that the European Cup had been the club's target for the past number of years.

So, we could only wonder what sort of damage would be inflicted on the Twickenham furniture if they happened to lose this one.

McLaren, who last week picked up an award for his contribution to rugby, was as excited as if it was the deciding match in the Six Nations. "Billy Williams, whose cabbage patch became the headquarters of the Rugby Football Union at Twickenham all those years ago, would be absolutely amazed at the distinctive atmosphere that pervades Twickenham today, one generated by the biggest audience ever to gather for the final of a European club final," said McLaren with real passion.

In his pre-match observations on RTE, Callard had likened the Munster players to "mad men, caged lions trying to get let loose . . . (give them) half-an-inch and they'll take a mile."

However, there was little evidence of this Munster fire early on and you could sense the worry in match commentator Jim Sherwin's voice as the early part of the match witnessed Munster, as he put it, "living on scraps".

His co-commentator Ralph Keyes couldn't neglect his Munster calling and constantly used the royal "we" when referring to the efforts of the men in red.

However, Sherwin was the one who had a verbal orgasm when David Wallace managed to dive over for the first-half try. "Oh Yeessss, it's going to be Wallace," roared Sherwin with a megaphone as Munster played out a cross-field move that opened up Northampton.

Keyes was equally ebullient. "What a psychological blow for Munster," he said. "Northampton have thrown everything including the kitchen sink and now they're behind by five points."

Indeed, the mood from BBC's analysts at half-time wouldn't have served as a pep talk for Northampton's players or managements.

Jonathan Davies, McLaren's co-commentator, wondered just what Northampton could do in the second half while Jeremy Guscott wasn't half as chirpy as he had been in the build-up.

Ominously, though, Guscott did state that Ronan O'Gara was "not having one of his best games ever . . . the occasion's getting to him, (he's) not as fluent."

Over on RTE, George Hook was fearful that Munster wouldn't be able to cope with things if they slipped behind. The fear would be that Northampton would "close up shop", if that happened, prophesised Hook.

Yet, we got a real indicator of Munster's fire within two minutes of the restart when Eddie Halvey made up a huge amount of ground to tackle Don Malone and Jim Sherwin told us that he could "run a hundred metres in under 10 seconds," which was stretching it a bit.

Once Northampton did get in front Hook's prophecy did materialise. Northampton did indeed shut up shop, but Munster got enough openings to win the match.

At one stage, Keyes told us: "You feel now, if Grayson kicks this, it might not be Munster's day." When he did the unexpected and missed, Keyes had a mood swing and said "somebody might just be looking down kindly at us."

When O'Gara had a late chance to kick a penalty goal, McLaren on the BBC described it as a "moment of history for Ronan O'Gara."

It was not to be, of course, and when the end came, Keyes described it on RTE as an "odyssey of a journey, one they've brought the whole country on." And he was right.

But, in the end, there were nothing but salted tears, and not just for the players, and a sense that the journey's end was not the paradise we had all anticipated.