Munster face Le Crunch

A BITTERLY cold wind swept through the Stade Aime Giral yesterday when the Munster squad visited the venue for today’s crunch Heineken Cup Pool 2 game against Perpignan (2pm).

More of the same is forecast for today as Alan Gaffney's side go in search of their fifth victory on French soil. Their record in this respect has been closely noted in the Perpignan camp with coach Olivier Saisset and Canadian number eight Phil Murphy last night referring to what they believe may be a crucial factor in Munster's favour.

"They have vast experience of this kind of must win situation", said Saisset. "They are very strong defensively and we will be trying to play a fast game in an effort to break them down. We managed to do that in our last two games against Gloucester and Narbonne, both of which we won well, but there is a danger we may be a little rusty because we have not played since the Narbonne match on December 21st".