Munster can exert control at halfback

WHEN the final whistle sounded on Munster’s pulsating 25-31 semi-final victory over Toulouse in Bordeaux, little did we think that it would take the aristocrats of French rugby three years to reach the penultimate stage of the competition again. The fall-out from that defeat was massive.

While Munster maintained a level of progress that saw them reach the semi-final of the competition every year since (the only side to do so), Toulouse failed to get out of their group. Now they are back.

At the outset of the competition, Toulouse beat Irish opposition with ease. When they massacred Munster by 60-19 in 1997, one feared for the future of Irish sides in Europe. Fortunately, the French felt the same. This level of complacency was certainly to the fore when Ulster beat Toulouse at the quarter-final stages in Ravenhill in 1999 and even more so when Munster emerged victorious in that epic semi-final three years ago.