Another epic journey comes to an end

“FRIENDS, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar.”

Shakespeare could have been speaking of Munster in yesterday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final; shorn of O’Gara and Cullen, their two play-making talismen, up against a Biarritz side that has been on fire in the French championship, in 25 degrees of heat, a wall of absolutely deafening local support, this was to be their last hurrah. Buried in San Sebastian.

In the end, they were indeed defeated; a standing ovation however, from the massed ranks of those noisy but sporting Biarritz fans, bespoke a very different ending. Munster lost, another bitter defeat, but they won hearts, won new fans, including a man who is a living legend in Biarritz.