Munster head to Cardiff on a wing and a prayer

IN the search for the Holy Grail of European rugby, Munster fans are hoping for divine intervention.

Leaving little to chance, anxious supporters are flocking to a special shrine in a Limerick church in the hope that Heaven might look favourably on their favourite sons.

Fr Liam Ryan at the Augustinian Church in O’Connell Street, who set up the altar, has also penned a special prayer for the 40,000 or so Munster supporters travelling to Cardiff for Saturday’s final.

The so-called Prayer of Desperation to St Jude concludes: “If you answer my prayer, I promise to limit myself to one drink if they win. Thank you for the gifts I am about to receive. Amen.”

Fr Ryan said: “I suppose it takes in all aspects of this weekend with people trying to get money and take time off work to go to the game. We just wanted to plug into what everyone is talking about.

“The game this weekend is all that everyone is interested in and hopefully with a little help from above Munster can be successful.”

Fr Ryan said Munster supporters have been stopping by all week to pray for a Munster victory.

The Munster supporters’ club is also seeking some outside help on Saturday. Chairman John Rochford said he will be asking Welsh fans to help the cause by lifting the roof off the Millennium Stadium.

“Welsh rugby supporters are famous for their rugby hymns. We have printed 120,000 hymn sheets the size of credit cards with the words of The Fields of Athenry and Stand Up and Fight on either side and we will give them out to the thousands of Welsh fans in the stadium,” he said.

Supporters will also be armed with more than 200 bodhráns to help bombard Biarritz.