Munster marching on - There was a taste of more from first win

NOW that the midweek aperitif in Moscow has been digested and filed away under “another red victory” we are well primed for this afternoon’s main course.

Munster’s European odyssey, which began when they beat Swansea 17-13 in a half-empty Thomond Park on November 1, 1995, has taken on an irrepressible life all of its own.

So much of the commentary on sport is unavoidable hyperbole but the Munster story, and the Toulouse one too, is supported by a palpable commitment to community, pride of place, honesty and dignity that few other fields of human endeavour — certainly not the vastmajority of professional sport — can so easily call upon.