More legends in the making

It takes a unique player to have the Munster hordes deifying him with his own personal chant, but as with Paul McGrath in football so Peter Clohessy, aka The Claw, has his own. Which is just as well, as there's little more that can be said about him after this, the 34-year-old's best season ever.

"Peter? What can you say about Peter?" shrugged Declan Kidney, lost for words about one of the legends in his ranks. Now Clohessy, Mick Galwey and Keith Wood mightn't be the only modern-day legends in Munster's ranks. The rest of them, too, stand within 80 minutes of supplanting even the famed group of 1978 which beat the All Blacks.

Clohessy just takes another win on French soil matter-of-factly now, even though they've been a long time coming against the people who give him the bird more than anywhere else. "Our defence won it for us. It was 80 minutes before they crossed our line and then the referee got in the way. We just don't give up. There's a great bond there. It's definitely the best Munster squad I've ever been involved with. There's something special there."

It's funny, he noted afterwards, how in all the times he's played the French, he's never scrummaged directly against the famed Christian Califano. "Every time I was tight-head he was tight-head, and then when I switched over so did he. Even today, when I switched over he went off at the same time. I think he must be frightened of me."

Not that everyone is, even in Limerick. The joke that The Claw was the only man in Limerick who could leave his car unlocked received a new twist when he returned from Bordeaux to find his car was clamped at Shannon airport.

Of another legend, namely Galwey, Declan Kidney said: "Gaillimh put in some tackles at the start that were tries, once definitely and I don't know where Mick appeared from.

"John Hayes, how did he play like that after his injuries lately? John Langford's tackle rate, the whole back row, the half-backs did their bit, the wings, I mean Anthony Horgan is a guy who hasn't been capped and he plays against Ntamack and Ntamack doesn't score, and his covering tackles."

Fittingly, in not singling out any one, Kidney had just about singled out everybody.

"Today is the sort of day that makes you get into sport really," admitted a suitably honoured Kidney. "You put yourself up against one of the top teams around but I should say we're only in a final."

Any talk of Toulouse being below par patently annoyed him. "No, no, that's wrong now. Toulouse were as good as they were allowed to be. They're a top class team, but there are many top teams in Europe. They may have respected us too much and this is where the mental strength comes in. In fairness to the players, they're after scoring three tries to one in the south of France on a sunny day, with one week's preparation."

For Ronan O'Gara there was a first try in the competition in a haul of 21 points to cement his standing as the competition's leading scorer with 131 points in eight games. Yet the perfectionist in him still rankled. "They had their homework done on myself and Strings, they were very bordering on offside any time I had the ball in hand. I had one or two chargedowns and that was when Peter was at the base and that shouldn't be happening."

Heaving a huge sigh, O'Gara revealed how it was less pressurised compared to playing in Stade de France. "Playing for your country is brilliant, but playing for Munster you can enjoy it, you can look up to the crowd and you can appreciate how lucky you are. It was probably the best atmosphere I've ever played in, both with our own supporters and the home supporters' noise."

A stunned French camp could only silently shake their heads and wonder what hit them. "Maybe there was not enough humility," admitted Alain Penaud. "Maybe we didn't learn from the defeat against Ulster last year."