WASPS...27 TOULOUSE...20: So Munster have lost to the eventual champions four times in the last five years. And the few thousand of them who turned up here were probably as enthralled as all the partisan Wasps and Toulouse supporters by this compelling Heineken European Cup final. Forty points or so lighter than the Super 12 final, but altogether a more satisfying dish.
The quality, if not the quantity, of tries was every bit as good - not least because Wasps' swarming defence and Toulouse's equally earth-shuddering battery of big hits made them so much harder to come by.
Some of the passages of daring close-in offloads, support play and changes of angles by this crack French outfit literally took the breath away and made you want them garnished with a try. The move and the ten minutes which preceded Yann Delaigue's 38th-minute try were as spellbindingly brilliant as anything this famous venue has seen in years - the world champions included.
Fabien Pelous, a true legend of the game, was quite awesome, and all around him he had kindred spirits, the bullish hooker William Servat, tight-head Jean-Baptiste Poux, the rock-star flanker Finau Maka, Yannick Jauzion in midfield. And yet, for all their brilliance, that was the only time they breached the Wasps line.
The Wasps pack tackled themselves to a standstill, with the immense Joe Worsley leading the charge. As is their wont, they lived by hook or by crook. Lawrence Dallaglio was rightly binned by Alain Rolland - Josh Lewsey and Paul Volley might have gone the same way - but Dallaglio's hit on Christian Labit in the second minute drew a line in the sand and Wasps' defence coach, Shaun Edwards, described Lewsey's defensive performance - when regularly left in not-so-splendid isolation - as "world-class".
In the heel of the hunt, Wasps had more of a cutting edge. Just as penetrative when the magnificent Simon Shaw and Trevor Leota began to rumble, more tellingly they were pacier in space and in broken play, with full back Mark van Gisbergen - the steal of the century thus far - giving them an edge Toulouse lacked.
The introduction of the dancing Vincent Clerc only highlighted this, and it was also a wonder that poor Yann Delaigue lasted as long as he did before Jean-Baptiste Elissalde was finally introduced, though Frederic Michalak was too loose and too short of full fitness to assume command when switched to ten. With a bit more control there, they'd surely have won.
Aside from a tendency to run up his own derriere, Delaigue also missed two penalties and a conversion (14 points in total if one adds in two drop-goal attempts) whereas van Gisbergen landed five from five and scored a try for a 17-point haul.
It had pretty much everything, right up to and including a brilliant/bizarre (dilute to taste) match-winning try at the death. Credit to Robert Howley for his stealthy opportunism; a pity for poor Clement Poitrenaud that his antennae didn't alert him sufficiently to Howley chasing down his own eye-of-the-needle grubber for a touchdown he had no right to win.
It was undoubtedly a remarkable climax of sorts, though one ventures that no less than the noisy Toulouse hordes - with their colour, drums and rhythmic chanting - the Munster fans present probably felt the anticipated 20 minutes of extra time would have provided a more fitting climax.
Inevitably, coach Warren Gatland pointed to the fact that Wasps scored three tries to one as proof they deserved to win, but this was a tad disingenuous. Toulouse's opening penalty highlighted this. A well-worked move off a take at the tail by the athletic Jean Bouilhou saw Pelous and Colazzo combine deftly to launch Jauzion up the middle, the recycle creating a four-man overlap which Lewsey - several miles offside - killed at source with a calculated professional foul. Later in the match, he would surely have been binned.
Even after Wasps had turned around Delaigue's opening two penalties after van Gisbergen had opened his account and then combined with Tom Voyce in a counterattack up the narrow side before Stuart Abbott scored from Alex King's cut-out pass off the recycle (Rolland playing an excellent advantage), twice well-placed chips to Wasps' soft outside cruelly eluded Cedric Heymans with tries abegging. Right up until the end, the bounce of the ball, in that corner especially, undoubtedly favoured Wasps.
After another van Gisbergen penalty, Pelous led another charge out of defence after a daring bout of keeping the ball alive in their own 22, Heymans making hay for 60 metres up the touchline. Maka led another charge, Poux was in support, Delaigue moved on to Jauzion, who punched a hole and flipped the ball out of a tackle for Delaigue to pounce.
It seemed Wasps might pull away upon the resumption. From a Dallaglio pick-up at the base of a scrum on their own ten-metre line, Wasps attacked the outhalf channel to the right, and then left a well-choreographed channel for Howley to hit van Gisbergen deep but at full tilt switching left. His flat pass gave King the room to beat Trevor Brennan on the outside (there wasn't much he could do) and find van Gisbergen on his inside, who skated in from 40 metres out.
Wasps saw out Dallaglio's binning, but after the England captain had tugged back Vincent Clerc off the ball after another Heymans touchline sprint, Elissalde kicked the sides level.
Cue the nervy endgame, with Toulouse unable to kick their way out of their own territory - witness Michalak's ill-advised short drop-out to the open side. Howley grubbered up the line through the eye of a needle, and as Poitrenaud hesitated, pounced for glory.
The replay on the big screen and the Wasps roar that greeted it confirmed what one's eyes had scarcely believed. Van Gisbergen's conversion off the crossbar merely confirmed it was Wasps' day. They had the fates and Robert Howley with them.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: Delaigue pen 0-3; 12: Delaigue pen 0-6; 16: van Gisbergen pen 3-6; 20: Abbott try, van Gisbergen con 10-6; 32: van Gisbergen pen 13-6; 38: Delaigue try 13-11 (half-time 13-11); 44: van Gisbergen try and con 20-11; 58: Elissalde pen 20-14; 72: Elissalde pen 20-17; 77: Elissalde pen 20-20; 80: Howley try, van Gisbergen con 27-20.
WASPS: M van Gisbergen; J Lewsey, F Waters, S Abbott, T Voyce; A King, R Howley; T Payne, T Leota, W Green, S Shaw, R Birkett, J Worsley, L Dallaglio (capt), P Volley. Sin-binned: Dallaglio (57-67 mins).
TOULOUSE: C Poitrenaud; E Ntamack, Y Jauzion, C Desbrosse, C Heymans; Y Delaigue, F Michalak; P Collazo, W Servat, J-B Poux, F Pelous (capt), T Brennan, J Bouilhou, C Labit, F Maka. Replacements: D Gerard for Brennan, J-B Elissalde for Delaigue (both 53 mins), Y Bru for Servat, I Maka for Labit (both 59 mins), V Clerc for Ntamack (67 mins).
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland).
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