‘We thought we were in a big Limerick’

LONG regarded as Munster’s 16th man, the province’s fans were pinpointed as the crucial difference between the sides on Saturday by Biarritz’s scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili.

Some people reckoned there were 100,000 Irish fans swarming around Cardiff on Saturday. The amount of them that got inside the ground is a bit hazier but, whatever the figures, their part in the victory was monumental.

With the roof closed, the noise reverberated around the Millennium Stadium from beginning to end. Designated the ‘home’ team by the ERC last week, Munster confirmed as much by laying claim to all but the smallest of red and white pockets on the day.