Toulouse - 13 Munster - 12:European Cup semi-finals: Another one-point heartbreaker, their third in finals or semi-finals. But this wasn't another hard luck story, à la Lille, though it did have much in common with the final defeat to Northampton in Twickenham three years ago.

As was the case at Twickenham, it was an heroic effort even to get Ronan O'Gara into kicking range for a match-winning three-pointer.

Munster will reflect on the two long-range O'Gara drop-goal efforts that sailed wide in the desperate end-game tussle for territory. But in truth, it would have been a bit of a steal.

For the middle chunk of the second half, Toulouse scaled heights that Munster never aspired to. Tellingly, they could throw seven replacements into the mix, several of whom had major impacts on the outcome. Most obviously, the introduction of Jean-Baptiste Elissalde at scrumhalf and the switching of the gifted Frederic Michalak from nine to ten, in place of the gifted Yann Delaigue, gave Toulouse more penetration and width as well as a better kicking game. By running straighter and attacking the gain line more, Michalak held the defence and created space for those out wide.

They could also bring in the livewire, twinkle-toed Cedric Heyman for the legendary Emile Ntamack, and as Toulouse's litany of expressive, creative and pacy runners began probing and probing, it was Heymans's off-load in a double tackle that was deftly scooped up by Elissalde for Michalak to score.

There might have been an argument for having Eddie Halvey on the bench, but Munster simply don't have these sort of in-depth riches at their disposal, and the introduction of Jason Holland in the 85th minute was almost a token gesture. In any event, realistically, the only way they were going to retrieve this match was through O'Gara's boot, and the minor miracle was that they had a couple of speculative chances to do so.

That was testimony to Munster's resilience and defensive resourcefulness. With the magnificent Christian Labit making more and more inroads, and the forwards' increased aggression ensuring quicker and quicker ball, Toulouse not only stretched Munster with their width, they mingled this with penetrative runs up the middle.

Most teams would have buckled and been beaten out the gate long before the end. But Munster put their bodies on the line and scrambled brilliantly; Jim Williams tracking back to beat Xavier Garbajosa to his own ingenious little grubber; Peter Stringer doing enough to prevent the centre from grounding the ball after taking a superb line off Michalak's off-load.

There was a key moment shortly after when Munster attacked off a line-out on halfway. In a reprise of their early right-to-left move, which brought Jeremy Staunton into the line, Rob Henderson skip-passed to the full back. It was too far in front of him. Had it come off, it might have seeped into Toulouse's sense of frustration and the initiative might briefly have swung back to Munster. Might have.

Such was the momentum with Toulouse at the time it most probably wouldn't. Within five minutes Michalak scored, and even had Elissalde not converted from the touchline, you sensed they would have scored again if they had to. By comparison, scoring was always harder work for Munster, as the first period had underlined.

With O'Gara striking the ball beautifully, Munster were lording the game territorially. The Munster line-out, more varied and accurate, was working like a dream and mauled Toulouse repeatedly - even if the scrum was under the cosh a tad - whereas the Toulouse line-out was under much more pressure.

A loose throw by Bru enabled O'Gara to augment an early drop goal with a penalty, and he had a difficult chance to make it 9-0 as well as an early effort from halfway. They did launch Henderson and Mike Mullins up the middle occasionally off set-piece ball, though Trevor Brennan's presence there further stiffened Toulouse's midfield. Munster might have called more full line-outs, but in any case they played an awful lot through O'Gara's boot.

As their quarter-final win over Northampton demonstrated, Toulouse's defence was well structured and organised - most unlike a French club side - and hinted at the influence of a rugby league coach.

When it was over, Jim Williams took the squad into a huddle and praised them for giving everything he had asked of them. As ever, they couldn't have given more. There won't, of course, be any recriminations, yet they'll wonder if they could have played the ball more through the hand.

"We probably didn't build enough phases ourselves when we had possession," admitted Alan Quinlan. "It suited them that we didn't build phases and obviously they did. They put us under a lot of pressure and unfortunately they scored from it."

Mullins echoed Quinlan's sentiments. "We probably didn't hold onto the ball long enough, and that's the worst-case scenario if we come off and say we didn't do this or do that. It's just something we'll work on next season."

And both players were adamant that, undaunted, Munster will come back as strong as ever, Quinlan pointing out that it is a relatively younger side now.

"We know we've still a way to go in our improvement and development, and we've just got to move on and look forward to the future," said Alan Gaffney.

"These guys have got this enormous belief in what they do. I don't believe there'll be any need to motivate them all because to a man they believe we can still develop and have got progress left in us."

Somehow, mentally, this was always going to be a bigger ask than Welford Road, where Munster had more time to think about last year's final and the additional revenge for the Grand Slam decider. Maybe it was the nature of the game, not keeping the ball long enough, but they looked more tired. But they'll come again. They always do.