At 3pm tomorrow, it will mark the moment that Munster’s first Heineken Cup winning Final kicked off in Cardiff 20 years ago. Munster went on to win that day 23-19 after defeats in both the 2000 and 2002 Finals. Several other near misses happened in the other years culminating in the victory in 2006.
I was lucky enough to be there in 2000, watched from home in 2002 but travelled in 2006 and was so fortunate to say I was there, many people claim to have been there in 1978 when Munster beat New Zealand where the provincial sides played national sides on a semi regular basis that year saw Munster defeat New Zealand in a game now immortalised in the famed play written by Alan English, “Alone It Stands”.
Several thousand beyond the people lucky to have a ticket that day in May 2006 travelled to be in Cardiff and to see could they finally reach the Promised Land and win the Heineken Cup after the defeats in 2000 and 2002.
Biarritz got the perfect start although controversial with wing Sireli Bobo crossing over the line to get there opening try but replays showed his heel had grazed the white chalk and should have been ruled out but it was awarded and that sense of foreboding and dread filled the stadium.
Munster had been on the receiving end of many tough decisions like John O Neill vs Stade Francais back in 2001 in the Heineken Cup quarter final of that season when he crashed over but his effort was ruled out for a supposedly being in touch before he put the ball down but photographs taken on the day proved he had not touched the corner flag and his try should have stood.
Anthony Foley was team captain on the day and had only missed a small number of games in the Heineken Cup from 1995 to the win in 2006. All those moments made sure that when Munster did eventually make it over the finish line that it tasted all the sweeter.
The played Sale, Castres, Newport Gwent Dragons and Bourgouin in there Pool winning 5 from 6 Pool games and only being beaten away at Sale and then needing to beat Sale on a never forgotten evening when David Wallace crashed over late on to secure a famous win over a very strong Sale side that had many internationals in the side like Jason Robinson, Sebastian Chabal, Jason White, Mark Cueto to name a few that lined out that evening.
A young centre named Barry Murphy was in the team that evening against Sale and made his Munster debut scoring a quality individual try that was 1 of the couple scored that evening. Unfortunately for Barry injury robbed him of a start in that Final with John Kelly starting at 13 against Biarritz and after the game was won he gave Barry his shirt and said “that’s yours I was just keeping it warm”.
Munster beat Perpignan in the quarter final in Dublin and that set up the 1st all Ireland semi final in the Heineken Cup vs Leinster in Lansdowne Road and after a tight affair Munster won on the day with Ronan O Gara scoring a try in the last 10 minutes before Trevor Halstead intercepted a pass in the final 2 mins and scampered over to crown a wonderful performance and day in Dublin.
The Census of 2006 was actually taken the weekend of the Leinster game, one of those forgotten but funny facts of that weekend. Back to Cardiff, Munster worked hard to win 23-19 on the day with Trevor Halstead and Peter Stringer scoring tries and Ronan O Gara supplied the rest with his trusty right boot.
Munster crossed over the winning line after a tense finish that had seen Biarritz lay siege to the Munster line but stout defence and a solid scrum held firm to see Munster through. The team that lined out that day was :
15 Shaun Payne
14 Anthony Horgan
13 John Kelly
12 Trevor Halstead
11 Ian Dowling
10 Ronan O Gara
9 Peter Stringer
8 Anthony Foley
7 David Wallace
6 Denis Leamy
5 Paul O Connell
4 Donnacha O Callaghan
3 John Hayes
2 Jerry Flannery
1 Marcus Horan
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16 Denis Fogarty
17 Fedrico Pucciariello
18 Mick O Driscoll
19 Alan Quinlan
20 Tomas O Leary
21 Jeremy Manning
22 Rob Henderson
Those men gave me the best day of my sporting life to that point. Hard to believe it’s 20 years ago but it is and it’s still a moment that brings me to tears. Let’s hope in another 20 years it still has the same impact on me…..