Munster won’t be sidetracked by emotion

Everyone knows that heightened emotions helped do for Munster’s Heineken Cup hopes in 2000.

Ronan O’Gara, for one, has spoken in the past about how 38 grown men were “balling crying” at a team meeting the night before the final in Twickenham and how it left them drained for a game which they lost having played well below their best.

It happened again in 2014 when Glasgow eased to a 31-13 win in the PRO12 decider at Kingspan Stadium and there are similarities between then and now with Paul O’Connell playing his last game in Belfast and Donnacha Ryan and Francis Saili finishing up later this evening.