Munster in final push

RUGBY/European Cup final: Gerry Thornley on why Munster are determined to go one better than two years ago.

Trust a fellow Munsterman to further deflect attention from the European Cup finalists. Aside from the red bunting in Shannon airport and the red boas which adorned the players' wives and girlfriends, Munster pretty much slipped out of Ireland into Cardiff and onto their Vale of Glamorgan hideaway near Swansea undetected.

Why, events in Saipan even took the players' minds off the big one tomorrow, Roy Keane being the talk of the camp. Typical upitty Corkman, chided the non Corkonians in the squad of their team-mates as news broke just before departure of Keane being sent home, though it was one of the Cork contingent who applied some Irish logic to the manager-player bust-up. "Who's right? They're both right." Of all the squads I've ever travelled with I couldn't imagine one less likely to boil over with discontent than this one. There's even a serenity about them this time compared to two years ago, and seemingly less fuss generally. Not that the coach hasn't had one of the toughest decisions of his life to ponder over.

Increasingly the vibe is that the quintet of walking wounded might just make it in time for Declan Kidney to name them all in his starting line-up and replacements tomorrow, with the prognosis on seemingly the biggest doubt at one point, Anthony Foley, looking particularly good.

However, if Foley, Jim Williams and Paul O'Connell are all passed fit, then taking into account the merits of Mick O'Driscoll, Alan Quinlan, Donnacha O'Callaghan and David Wallace, that will leave Kidney endeavouring to perm six from seven when naming his second-row and back-row starters and replacements. And not even the one-time maths teacher can do that.

Much as he tries to describe this as just another match, it's clearly anything but, and being in the final two years ago can only be beneficial. "Well, I suppose it's like the second time around for anything really. You try and learn from your first experiences and hopefully you gain from it. I read a definition there recently that somebody said that experience is something you get when you don't get what you want. We've got a little bit more experience going into this one but that won't win you the game either."

It's taken them 16 matches and two years to get back there again, and Mick Galwey admits it's become something of a Magnificent Obsession ever since. Now, Galwey admits, there's a different mindset.

"We didn't do ourselves justice (in the final two years ago). Hopefully we've learned from it. We were just caught up in the hype two years ago. This time around we're a little more nervous for some reason. As I said earlier, and I think I was fairly accurate about it, we don't want to think about losing because we don't want to have a feeling like that again, but we're not thinking about winning either."

A formguide of three wins, a draw and three defeats beginning with the Celtic League final isn't what we're used to from Munster but as Galwey says, "we've won the important ones, and that's what's got us to the Heineken Cup final." And it's the prize at stake which will overcome any end-of-season weariness.

"I think that will go out the door to be honest with you. It's going to be a huge game, it'll be like an international and you often find with internationals that they can be all over without you even thinking about it. The game will go quickly. You ask any of the lads about the final two years ago and it was all over before they knew it."

There's no escaping that this game marks the end of an era. In keeping with a lower playing profile next season as he becomes more involved in the coaching side of things, this will be Galwey's last game as captain, as well as last games for Kidney, Niall O'Donovan and Peter Clohessy, not to mention John Langford's last involvement.

Not that it's talked about, not yet anyway, though you sense another powerful pre-match speech is building up inside this supreme motivator.

"We don't talk about it to be honest with you because we've always said it's not about individuals, it's not about the management or the team, it's about the whole ethos, it's about the people who are travelling with us, it's about the people who can't travel, it's about the people who supported Munster years ago, it's about the great players that played with Munster who never saw days like this, it's about everybody involved in this, it's about everybody Irish who wants to be involved in this.

"If we do this we do it for everybody who supports us or anybody who wants to support us."