Sunday could be Munster rugby's finest hour

Munster can turn their Rugby Champions Cup campaign around with a win over Clermont at the Stade Marcel Michelin — but it will take their greatest performance in 20 years of European rugby to do so, suggests Ronan O'Gara.

You’d anticipate a massive reaction from the Munster players on Sunday. They are hurting and with key leaders at the spine of the team, the required improvement in performance will be forthcoming. Most of the players playing last Saturday wouldn’t have shown their faces in public last Sunday or Monday.

It was similar when Ulster and Ruan Pienaar did a number on us in the 2012 Heineken Cup quarter-final. That is the depth of inner turmoil associated with losing at home in Europe — myself and two of my young lads will make the 440-kilometre journey to Clermont on Sunday to witness just how these wounded warriors will respond.