Stringer celebrates his finest hour

IT gives you a queasy feeling to watch grown men cry, particularly when you’re one of them.

Suffice to say I was in good company. The outpouring of emotion when referee Chris White blew the final whistle was widespread throughout the stadium.

After all the heartache, near-misses and what-might-have-beens over the past six years, the moment that everybody had craved for so long finally arrived. Call it fulfilment, deliverance or whatever you like. All I know is that it was well worth waiting for.

How fitting that the person to trigger the celebrations when banishing the ball into the stands was Peter Stringer. Though small in stature, does anybody on this team have a bigger heart? On the day when it mattered most, Stringer delivered the performance of a lifetime. If Ronan O’Gara outplayed Felipe Contepomi in the semi-final, Stringer reserved his best for the battle with Biarritz’s key figure Dimitri Yachvili.

When I said in advance that this game would go to the wire, I just knew that with minutes to go the cup would still be there for the taking.

When Biarritz were still in a position to win the game from the last play, you feared the worst. With just four points separating the sides, a try would suffice for the Frenchmen.

How close they came to scoring it. In the end their composure let them down and crossing between Sireli Bobo and Arramburu was sufficient for referee White to award Munster the most rewarding scrum of their entire history.

Whoever said that courage and passion alone are not enough? When Munster’s character was called into question after a disastrous opening sequence, once again Anthony Foley’s proud men prevailed.

When Bobo’s opening score after just three minutes was awarded — despite the glaring evidence that his heel was in touch — thoughts of the John O’Neill incidence in Lille and the ‘hand of Back’ on our last visit to Cardiff came flooding back. Surely controversy couldn’t reign once more. Thankfully it never came to that.

We knew coming into this game that Biarritz were an outstanding side. The reigning French champions top the table again this season.

To beat a team of such quality makes Munster’s achievement on Saturday all the more momentous. Their will in turning that early seven-point deficit into a seven-point lead at the break was monumental.

Over the years, Munster’s success in Europe has been built around the dominance of the pack from the lineout and the breakdown. On this occasion they were presented with the ultimate challenge up front from an outstanding Biarritz eight. There was pressure on the Munster scrum from the off and lineout possession was extremely hard-fought as Biarritz, through the excellence of Imanol Harinordoquy in particular, contested every throw.

However, when Munster got their trademark maul rumbling after the disastrous opening phase, confidence coursed through the team.

Nowhere was that belief more evident than in the decision of Anthony Foley and O’Gara to pass up on two kickable penalties, despite evidence to suggest from O’Gara’s successful opening effort that he was in the groove.

The decisions initially seemed costly as Munster’s lineout faltered but Trevor Halstead’s excellent try from some superb interplay yielded the ultimate reward. There were two moments in the second half that defined what this Munster journey was all about. When O’Gara slotted that early second-half penalty to generate a 10-point lead, Biarritz cranked up the pace in a desperate effort to claw Munster back.

Outstanding centre Damien Traille spotted his opportunity given that John Hayes was opposite him in the defensive line.

He picked the wrong man. Hayes not only made the tackle but also drove the Frenchman back from whence he came and crucially turned over possession in the same sequence.

When Traille eventually got back on his feet, his head hung just a little. Five minutes later he departed the scene. A massive part of the Biarritz attacking armoury behind the scrum was now removed from the battle.

The second half was largely a white -knuckle ride for the Munster faithful when a succession of Biarritz penalties stunned them into silence. We were then treated to one of the most incredible moments in sporting history.

The connection between this team and its supporters is like an umbilical cord. On this occasion that cord stretched across the Irish Sea to the heart of O’Connell Street in Limerick. When the scenes were projected on the massive screens within the stadium depicting the crowd in Limerick waving, the Munster supporters in Cardiff stood and waved to their fellow brethren. It inspired a rendition of the Fields of Athenry that must have rocked even Paddy Reilly. From that moment on, you just couldn’t lose.

On a day that will define the lives of these Munster players forever, there were heroes aplenty. If Stringer enjoyed his finest hour, Marcus Horan’s achievement in lasting 62 minutes at this level of competition, not having played for seven weeks, was remarkable. Likewise John Kelly deserves immense credit for his achievement in lasting the full game.

Up front, Munster’s spiritual leader Paul O’Connell, despite another excellent performance, was visibly handicapped by his recent injury. Yet into the breach stepped his second row partner Donncha O’Callaghan. O’Callaghan was pure class in everything he did, particularly in the lineout, where he was imperious. His power and leg drive in the contact area was responsible for generating a huge amount of front-foot ball for Stringer.

In midfield Halstead continued where he left off against Leinster and continuously asked questions of Biarritz’s famed defence. His workload was awesome. While O’Gara had a few jiggy moments in the second half, the quality of his place-kicking and that of Yachvili was world-class, with both achieving five from five.

The outpouring of joy at the medal ceremony was the product of years of frustration. How fitting, when the Heineken Cup was finally handed over, that Foley was the recipient. For a team that places such an emphasis on family, friends, supporters and a strong identity of where you come from, the bloodline from Munster’s previous greatest day, was maintained.

I’m sure his father Brendan and his team-mates from October 1978 will have cherished the moment.