Taxi driver's find helped Munster to victory

A Limerick taxi driver who found Gloucester's game plan in his cab today told how he managed to pass it on to Munster in time for their crucial European Cup match last Saturday.

The Limerick driver told of his surprise when he found the Gloucester rugby club document which was intended to scupper Munster’s chances in the Heineken Cup group game – and then went on to watch them claim victory over the English side.

“I looked on the ground and I saw this piece of paper and being a taxi driver I thought it was money,” said the driver, who did not wish to be named, in an interview on radio.

“So I went to check it out and when it wasn’t I was just about to throw it out the window and I looked at it and I nearly crashed the car.”

Later during his shift he picked up Shannon rugby club player Brian Buckley, who looked at the plan and told him how big a find he had made.

“I gave him the plan and he looked at it and he nearly fainted in the car. He said I had to get it to the Munster team.”

When he could not get hold of anybody from the team the driver went to the host of a radio sports show on 95FM, and handed him the plan.

Ex-Munster player Pat Whelan, who was with him, looked at the document.

“Pat was looking over his shoulder and Pat Whelan nearly jumped,” he said.

The driver said he gave a photocopy of the plan to the pair, who, he said, then passed it on to the team.

The next morning he watched as Munster beat the English league leaders by 27 points, scoring the four tries needed to advance ahead of them to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup.

“I just got up at 1.30 and I watched the match in my dressing gown and I was like a lunatic,” he said.

He said he hoped Munster would repay him by giving him free tickets and accommodation for the Celtic League final in Cardiff.

“If I did them a favour they might as well do me one.”

He said he hoped to use the original copy to create a limited number of framed plaques featuring the game plan surrounded by the Munster team’s autographs and photographs, then sell them for a Limerick charity.

The driver said he did not make any attempt to contact the owner of the plan, but added: “If it was money he’d have got it back, but this was too important.”