Pride hard to contain on 'one of the special days'

They are always so careful of what they say, but by Saturday evening the bubbling pressure cooker of the last few months was finally released. They had not let down themselves, their people or their history. Hence, the combination of relief and satisfaction gave way to an unusual and almost emotional show of pride by Declan Kidney in the chilly bowels of the redeveloping Thomond Park on Saturday. He was at peace with the world.

Exuding an almost paternal "pride" in his players, Kidney admitted, "Today is definitely a special day. To beat a team of Wasps' calibre is always a big ask. To do it in the way the boys methodically went through the game I think speaks volumes for all the players and the decision-makers out on the pitch.

"Yes, I am very proud of them. I'm always very proud of them. Yeah, today was one of the special days.

"What pleased me was the way we gained a bit of composure once we got to three-all. And once we got that we started playing our way through the game. Strings (Peter Stringer) took a good bit of control by turning them a few times, which was probably something we learnt from (the game against) Leicester last year, playing the ball in front of the forwards on a day like this . . . and over the last few months. Maybe we should just scrap training altogether.

"We come into a game with one plan and then you just ball it up and throw it away as it's another wet day and you have to play through it. And I think they did that today."

Donncha O'Callaghan, rediscovering a physicality and insatiable hunger for action that, as with so many of his colleagues, finds easier expression in red than green, won the man-of-the-match award as he continued his resurgence. But it says everything about Munster's achievement that, as Kidney pointed out, they have qualified without their captain and talisman up front, Paul O'Connell. After last season's subdued form, no-one made relatively light of his absence more than Mick O'Driscoll.

"I think he's just maturing very well," observed Kidney. "What would he be now, 28? In terms of a secondrow, that's just coming into his prime. We have another one or two youngsters too egging him on for his place.

"He's been playing well for us all season. Two years ago he played in eight of the nine games. He's a huge contributor to everything that Munster does."

In the packed Thomond Park bear-pit, Ian McGeechan, Wasps' director of rugby, must have felt the world was combining against his team but he and Lawrence Dallaglio could have done without blaming Nigel Owen, even allowing for the two-to-one yellow card and penalty count against them. Striking a decidedly begrudging note, McGeechan seemed to attribute everything about the outcome to the efforts of the Welsh referee.

"We knew we'd have to get a lot right, probably about 100 per cent right, to get a win here and we didn't. The penalty count went against us, and some of the decisions, and Munster kept hold of the ball."

He bemoaned their yellow cards, describing the one to Simon Shaw as "very marginal" and adding, "Tough calls, and when I thought it was going to be a marginal game with very little difference things like that become huge, don't they?"

So it went on, whether it was the weather, the lineouts or the scrums.

Albeit in the context of "a two-to-one penalty count" Wasps coach Shaun Edwards eulogised O'Gara's "masterclass" and prompted McGeechan to at least concede, "O'Gara was certainly the difference. He put the forwards in the right place, they didn't make many mistakes."

McGeechan also noted bitterly, "Clermont sending a second team here has probably been quite instrumental in what happened in the outcome."

This conveniently overlooks the fact Llanelli sent a greatly weakened team to Wasps.

When pressed as to whether Munster deserved to win, McGeechan finally admitted, "On the night I can't complain about Munster winning, no."