Heineken Cup Final

[whyohwhy]

Well lads, I am a bag of nerves over it, am flying out on friday!

Head says Biarritz will do it, Good pack, fantastic back row, great scrum half, solid out half, devastating centres, great finishers on the wings and a good full-back.

But, Munster seem to be a lot more focused this year as the victory over Leinster showed: a pure masterclass of forward play and solid workmanlike back play.

O'Connell and Leamy to rule the roost on Saturday

[cully]

"head says Biarritz".....

Is that just the typical Munster rubbish of making yourselves into the underdogs only to make your victory all the more greater? going to give you the benefit of the doubt though.

i think munster go in as favourites. they've got the experience and have beaten some good teams on the way to the final. in the last two rounds biarritz have beaten a rubbish bath team and an inept sale side. they ground out the victories and do have a smashing side, but it'd be nothing i would fear if i were a munster-man.

the pack will win you the game. their backrow is class with betsen and imanol h, but in leamy, foley and wallace i reckon munster have more as a unit , and i'd argue if either betsen or imanol would make the munster backrow at present thus emphasising my point. yachvili is class but the back row should keep him quiet.

biarritz have two big wingers whom don't like the ball being put behind them as neither of them can kick to save their lives, o'gara will play a similar game to that he did in twick three yrs ago when he just plied the corners and let the pack disrupt at lineout time and live off the pressure and of biarritz mistakes. munster to win for me.

[whyohwhy]

cully said:

"head says Biarritz".....

Is that just the typical Munster rubbish of making yourselves into the underdogs only to make your victory all the more greater?

How is it rubbish? Biarritz have been the bookies favourites since the quarter-finals were announced (even with Toulouse still in it).

We dont need to be underdogs to make a possible victory sweeter. 2 losses in past finals will do that!

Bobo does look like a girl (non sporty girl) when he is trying to kick, but he is devastating in broken play.

I hope you are right, Cully, I really do

[iamthelaw]

Am with Cully on this one.

Munster have the experience. I think that's shown in the Biarritz performances (or lack thereof) as they've got closer to the final. Against Sale and Bath they were afraid to use their back five; no reason to think that'll change with the added pressure the final brings, plus the Munster crowd screaming at them. This also limits their back-row, who are at their best in an expansive game.

I rarely agree with Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times, but last weekend he said if he was picking 15 players, 13 of them would be Biarritz (a bit excessive perhaps but you can see his point), but as a team he felt Munster would win.

Munster pack to grind it out again.

Incidentally Munster are marginal favourites with paddypower, but that may be affected by the volume of bets on one side rather than the other. The bet I love though is that Munster are 13/10 on to lift the trophy, and Biarritz are 11/10 on. Yes, "on" in both cases. So in a two-horse race both apparently have a better-than-evens chance of winning. What a scam.

[iamthelaw]

iamthelaw said:

Incidentally Munster are marginal favourites with paddypower, but that may be affected by the volume of bets on one side rather than the other. The bet I love though is that Munster are 13/10 on to lift the trophy, and Biarritz are 11/10 on. Yes, "on" in both cases. So in a two-horse race both apparently have a better-than-evens chance of winning. What a scam.

btw Munster are stronger favourites with Betdaq, at about 4/3 on to win the Cup, compared to Biarritz at about 5/4.

[bandage]

I hope Munster win this one now after initially being bitter about Leinster's defeat. Not because of any love for them but because I don't want to have to listen to another 12 months of tales of heroic defeat etc etc. JUst win the fooking thing, celebrate it for a few weeks and then shut the fook up. Enjoy the weekend whyohwhy.

[therock67]

I would have Munster as slight favourites as well. Biarritz have a decent team but they haven't much form in the Heineken Cup this season and Munster have bags of experience.

Like Cully I think their backrow is well hyped but Yachvilli is the danger man. I can't see where Stephen Jones is getting his 13 Biarritz starters from. Christ that man annoys me. He should be confined to a column where he can rant all he likes but it's ridiculous getting him to write match reports when he is so opinionated.

[iamthelaw]

admin said:

Like Cully I think their backrow is well hyped but Yachvilli is the danger man. I can't see where Stephen Jones is getting his 13 Biarritz starters from. Christ that man annoys me. He should be confined to a column where he can rant all he likes but it's ridiculous getting him to write match reports when he is so opinionated.

His 2 Munster starters were O'Connell & Flannery. I don't like O'Gara but I think you have to have him ahead of Peyrelongue. Apart from that, I think Leamy in the backrow is the obvious exclusion; Jones says he'd pick Harinordoquy ahead of him but I think Leamy would still then get in ahead of Lievremont.

Of course Jones would probably still claim in any case to be able to pick 15 Bath or Sale players better than 15 from Munster/Biarritz, as England are the best. (I know Jones is Welsh but I don't think he does).

From what I saw of the semi, I think Yachvili can be as much of a danger to Biarritz as to Munster; he needs to take less on himself & allow the rest of his team play. He's the perfect example of how Biarritz have the better players & Munster the better team.

[whyohwhy]

Stephen Jones is a Fucking Twat, he used to regularly slag Wales off too and he's fucking Welsh himself.

Once read an article by him where he slagged Ireland for having non-national players (I assumed he meant the Easterbunnies and possibly O'Gara (born in San-Diego)).

He casually overlooked the Welsh 'Grannygate' controversy and the English having Catt and Henry Paul, Scotland with those kiwi brothers (names slipped my mind at moment), France with De-Villiers and Italy with Griffin, Dominquez and 1 other. Fucking arsehole

[bandage]

How did this one end up? Saw Munster were 7-0 down early on.

[whyohwhy]

Currently in the process of drafting my report for thefreekick.com forum members on the 2006 Heineken Cup Final. Trying to find the correct words to describe the feeling; Brilliant, stupendous, orgasmic and amazing wont do it justice.

It will be biased, it will be entirely unimpartial and it wont be gloating!

Watch this space!!!

[cully]

eagerly awaiting the report, my dad was there and said he's never been at such a sporting event

[iamthelaw]

yeah, won't risk stealing whyohwhy's thunder, but the way every single person stayed in the ground for 15-20 minutes after the end of the game singing & cheering was something I've never seen. Saw loads of Welsh lads down the front on the big screen, & there were English guys behind us, & all of them cheering for Munster too.

[whyohwhy]

Well Lads,

I have arrived back safe and sound from probably one of the best weekends of my life. I am going to struggle to find the words to articulate the whole experience, but I’ll do my best.

Dublin airport on Friday morning was busy, but not as busy as the last time I flew from there. There were 3 spare seats on the Aer Arran flying cigar tube with propellers, but the other 70 odd seats were occupied by Munster fans of all ages, all wearing something with red.

Reached Cardiff on time and headed straight to the city centre, it seemed to be a normal Friday morning in the city except that the pubs seemed quite full for midday. First we headed to the ‘Prince of Wales’ pub near the bus station for a few bevies. The Dregs of English society were there, young mothers with prams drinking Smirnoff Ice, old men with fuck all else to do and tracksuit & Burberry baseball wearing teenagers, all of this at about 12:30. We would have left except for the 40 odd Munster fans there. No singing as of yet, probably too early. We met four Ulster fans over for their match that night and the final – nice people; wishing us all the best. We started to get in the mood: pints were going down well (except for the Fursty Ferret, which smelt like a wet dog and tasted like it was fermented with mouldy socks), mood was good, everybody was cheery and the banter was flying.

We decided to head up Mary Street for a few more, went to ‘The Cottage’ pub, place was jammers with rugby fans, majority were Munster fans, a few from Tullamore and other Leinster clubs and an odd couple of miscellaneous others (no Biarritz fans). Mood was massive in there, met a bunch of lads from the Kerry/Limerick border skulling pints like it was their first time away from the wives in years. A table full of lads from Limerick who drove down to Bristol on the Thursday started singing, when an old fella from Cork who was in exile in Tullamore came up to us to ask us to gather around the table of Leinster fans from Tullamore and sing at them, we duly did, it made the old fellas day, he said he’d being putting up with banter from them since the quarter finals!! By the time we left Cardiff, I reckon I had seen about 5 Biarritz fans.

Friday finished up with a 40 mile train journey north to our hotel in Blackwoods (which is some shithole). More pints were had in various pubs with the locals; the first thing they said to us was “What the fuck are ye doing in Blackwoods? Its shit!” and “I hate the English, me”. After getting soaked waiting for a cab, it was bed.

Saturday will live long in the memory, it was a great day. Firstly, I awoke with pounding headache which was soon forgotten with the greasy full English breakfast and two prematch pints in the Cardiff blues rugby club. Songs were coming out thick and fast as people lubricated their vocal cords with beer. As half one approached we decided to head to the stadium to catch the prematch entertainment and the team warm up.

We made it to stadium (which is absolutely fantastic - better than Croke Park, in my opinion) for two o'clock. It was about three quarters full when Munster ran out for their warm-up at quarter past, massive cheers greeted them. The warm up drills were fast and looked snappy, saw one dropped pass. Jim Williams was there having a few words with the players. O’Gara was going through his kicking routine seemingly oblivious to the cacophony of noise which was gradually rising, partly due to the prematch entertainment and partly from the fans singing ‘The Fields’ and roaring ‘Munster, Munster’.

Murty the mascot was ‘walking’ around, throwing shapes. Conversation at this stage had disappeared amongst the 3 lads and me. My stomach was doing somersaults; the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck every time the singing started getting louder. The prematch entertainment itself was poor, it was hard to hear the singers; however, the ‘Why Why Delilah’ karaoke and Mexican wave helped break the building tension and ease the fraught nerves.

The few pockets of Biarritz fans dotted around the stadium tried to start a few songs but were generally out sung by the masses of Munster fans. I didn’t get to see much of the Biarritz warm up as I was down the Munster end. The roar of the crowd as the team ran back to the changing rooms was immense, the hairs on the back of my neck again shot up. The pitch was cleared, the music stopped, the tension reached an unbelievable level. How long more did we have to wait?

Then the fireworks at the tunnel entrance started as the team ran out, the noise again was unbelievable, there was no rhythm to it, no single unifying song, no chant, I was just roaring, not shouting but roaring, any noise would do, make them hear, make Biarritz think about where they are, make Munster know we’re here. I was hoarse by then, but didn’t care. The ‘Munster, Munster’ chant started, it was loud but died quickly as the game began. Finally, 80 minutes away from glory or 80 minutes from forever being called bottlers.

The start was a disaster, a knock on from the kick-off, the scum going up and backwards was greeted by a groan from everyone. Then Bobo’s try really knocked the wind out of the fans sails. It seemed like Bobo’s foot just grazed the whitewash on the replays, but it’s hard to blame the touch judge as we did have the benefit of replays and were biased. But that didn’t stop the booing and abuse being hurled at him as the replays seemed to show that we had been robbed. Surely it wasn’t going to be Lille all over again.

It felt like Biarritz had arrived with their try-scoring game of the French league and not the defensive lacklustre game they had used against Sale and Bath. Yachvili's conversion showed he was on his game (I was very impressed with his all-round game, some of his kicks from the base of the scrums and back of rucks was beautiful to behold, he gave Payne a torrid afternoon).

After that Munster owned the rest of the half, the lineout was secure, the maul working relatively ok, Stringer passing well, O’Gara place kicking perfect, out of hand was ok. Halstead solid as ever and containing Traille, Kelly seemed to have Bidabe contained; Horgan and Dowling were eager and showing for the ball. The pack looked menacing as Munster took control and nullified the threat of Betsen attacking O’Gara.

The Halstead try was the reward we needed for our dominance, the pack set up the quick ball and O’Gara sent it wide, Halstead crashed. I couldn’t see any touchdown but the refs arm shooting was the cue for the first burst of group hugging and for the first Heineken shower.

The rest of the half is a jumble in my mind (I haven’t seen any replays of the match yet), except for Stringers try. I was sitting in that corner on the top level near the front. The scrum set. Everything went in slow motion; we could see Bobo moving to behind the scrum. But stringer never breaks and when he does he get screwed by a lot lesser men than Serge Betsen. Bobo moved again. Stringer picked and ran. It was like slow motion; Betsen struck out a hand and moved left. Stringer was gone past him, I was waiting for someone to tackle him, they never came, one superman dive later and pandemonium; more group hugging, this time with people for rows behind and in front of us. The second shower of Heineken was sweeter than the first.

Half-time; roared them off and took a deep breath. I tried to read the programme but it had been soaked in the Heineken showers. So I sat down and took pause. We discussed the issues; Had we been leading against Northhampton? Against Leicester? Stringer was playing well, Harinordoquy is class, Traille has been quiet, Gobelet is a fucking monster, 1st score will be crucial. 40 to go, it was getting closer (glory or bottling). Cara O’Sullivan came on and sang ‘Stand Up and Fight’ – savage.

A few texts come through, the sisters - “have you got good seats? Atmosphere seems electric” (they’re not wrong). Another one comes in, one of the lads from work – Its Munster’s day!!! Jeez it’s only half time, don’t tempt fate.

Out they came, more roaring and shouting, no changes. Biarritz was attacking my end. 40 to go. Break in play, whistle, penalty Munster, straightforward kick, O’Gara slots it, sweet. 20-10; they need at least 2 scores. The second half was Biarritz’s, they had way more possession, but I don’t remember them ever being camped on our line, with us having to throw bodies on the line We were more subdued, Gobelet, Bobo and Harinordoquy were hitting the line more regularly, Yachvili was probing with more effect, the clock seemed to be fucking stuck, oh it was, a break in play.

Yachvili was hitting penalties like he was at practice, lead down to seven, down some more to four, down to one. Fuck, fuck fuck fuck. Then the subs started coming on, Lievremont goes off;

“That’s good, that’s good”
“Who’s coming on? Don’t know, couldn’t hear”.

The programme is stuck together with beer. Horan off,

“Not fit for eighty anyway, wasn’t his day in open play, Le Puc is a better scrummager”.

Foley off, “shit that’s bad”
“O’Driscoll! What!”
“Wait wait, he’s a good lineout option”.

O’Driscoll's first touch; a fine catch from a bad clearance and charges straight back at them, huge roars from the crowd, ball retained and recycled, bigger roars. Hardly anyone sitting anymore, more like crouching to sit and then jumping up again, roaring and shouting.

O’Connell off:
“Fuck, fuck, is he injured? Who’s on?”
“Quinlan”
“He’s a hard cunt and handy in the lineout”.

Time is ticking slowly, penalty Munster, infringement. Quietness descends apart from people telling other people to shut up. O’Gara’s routine, steps up, Roars from far end, flags up, we roar and hug. They need a try, but never look like scoring a second so far.

Pictures from Limerick, more roaring, each seemingly louder than the last. ‘The Fields’ don’t seem to get going at all, people too engrossed in the match. 77 minutes, clock stopped again, 78 minutes. 79 minutes.

Bidabe makes a break, Brusque in support, space ahead of them, in front of us, Kelly struggling – fuck, Dowling struggling – fuck fuck, Halstead slow – fuck fuck fuck. Tackled “Oh Thank Christ”, Just kill it, fucking kill it”. Bobo crossing, whistle. Pause. Munster scrum, YES. Hugging. Wait; a scrum, we’re shit at scrums. It wheels. Whistle. Ball kicked out. It’s over…………………… A roar from deep inside everyone, a roar of pain being released, a roar of pure fucking joy. Success, finally European Cup winners. Grab anyone within grabbing distance. I fall on the guy in front of me, dragged back up by the lads, dance with them, look down on the pitch and see the subs streaming over to the mass of red jerseys jumping on top of each other in the corner of the pitch in front of us. Fucking pandemonium, just craziness. More Heineken comes raining down on top of us. It’s some feeling, absolute class.

Watch the players console the Biarritz team, they played well, it must have been hard on them, hardly any fans there, any of there scores practically greeted with silence, no camera shots of Biarritz fans in Biarritz. They played well. But Munster has lost 2 finals.

More Heineken, fucking hell, did some punter buy some just to throw up in the air? Then ‘The Fields’, full voice now, everyone singing it. Magic. The presentation podium is being set up. The teams milling around, must be hard on the Biarritz team to have to hang around for this, but fair play to their fans for sticking around too. Up they go and a lot of applause for them, rightly so too. Up goes Chris White and the touch judges, polite applause.

This is it; up they go, one by one for their medals, each player getting a cheer. We watch on the big screen, Flannery, legend; Bull, legend (‘Tis your field Bull, I roar); Wallace, legend; O’Gara, legend; Stringer, some legend today; Halstead, legend. There’s a gap at the back, Foley is waiting, teasing us, up he goes, urging us to get louder, we do, he’s next to the Holy Grail, he urges us to shout and roar even louder, we oblige again. He gets it, up it goes. YES

Fireworks go off, the team disappear under the silver stuff, and we disappear in the mass of people grabbing and shaking each other and roaring. Everybody is smiling and jumping around.

The team move over towards our corner for the first photo session and champagne, the first stop on what turned out to be a lap and a half of honour. We see some interviews on the big screens, but can’t hear anything. The team shower each other in champagne, all hugging each other, Declan Kidney wanders over, gets a soaking for his trouble, Jim ‘The Waterboy’ Williams gets the same treatment. Fantastic. Incredible, the team begin to wander around the stadium, nobody is moving from our section, from any section.

Eventually we begin to wander out, feeling elated but tired, it’s been a long day, Place is thronged with smiling happy, joyous Munster fans. We find the nearest pub, its packed, fight my way to the bar and order some of the sweetest tasting beers, I’ve ever drunk. It eases the throat; we begin to talk about the match, analysis, laughs.

The pub is packed, I meet some old mates from Dublin and Louth, they’re as happy as Munster people. The music kicks on, ‘Wild Rover’, ‘Seven Drunken Nights’, ‘Come on Eileen’, all the classics, everybody dancing. The Biarritz fans are in, they join in, pints flowing, not a sad face in the place. The bouncers don’t know what to make of it. 2 Japanese girls wander over, they’re grabbed and dragged in. Later one of them is propping up a spontaneous scrum while the other pushes from the second row! Pure clean fun.

A Day that will live long in the memory.

[iamthelaw]

whyohwhy said:

Bidabe makes a break, Brusque in support, space ahead of them, in front of us, Kelly struggling – fuck, Dowling struggling – fuck fuck, Halstead slow – fuck fuck fuck. Tackled “Oh Thank Christ”, Just kill it, fucking kill it”. Bobo crossing, whistle. Pause. Munster scrum, YES. Hugging. Wait; a scrum, we’re shit at scrums. It wheels. Whistle. Ball kicked out. It’s over…………………… A roar from deep inside everyone, a roar of pain being released, a roar of pure fucking joy. Success, finally European Cup winners. Grab anyone within grabbing distance. I fall on the guy in front of me, dragged back up by the lads, dance with them, look down on the pitch and see the subs streaming over to the mass of red jerseys jumping on top of each other in the corner of the pitch in front of us. Fucking pandemonium, just craziness. More Heineken comes raining down on top of us. It’s some feeling, absolute class.

Watch the players console the Biarritz team, they played well, it must have been hard on them, hardly any fans there, any of there scores practically greeted with silence, no camera shots of Biarritz fans in Biarritz. They played well. But Munster has lost 2 finals.

More Heineken, fucking hell, did some punter buy some just to throw up in the air? Then ‘The Fields’, full voice now, everyone singing it. Magic. The presentation podium is being set up. The teams milling around, must be hard on the Biarritz team to have to hang around for this, but fair play to their fans for sticking around too. Up they go and a lot of applause for them, rightly so too. Up goes Chris White and the touch judges, polite applause.

This is it; up they go, one by one for their medals, each player getting a cheer. We watch on the big screen, Flannery, legend; Bull, legend (‘Tis your field Bull, I roar); Wallace, legend; O’Gara, legend; Stringer, some legend today; Halstead, legend. There’s a gap at the back, Foley is waiting, teasing us, up he goes, urging us to get louder, we do, he’s next to the Holy Grail, he urges us to shout and roar even louder, we oblige again. He gets it, up it goes. YES

Move that this epic post be put up as an article. Passage above is particularly class in my opinion. Fantastic work whyohwhy.

[bandage]

Super stuff - we'll definitely get that up as an article. Oozes passion and as a Munster sceptic I admit I had a few goosebumps reading it.

[therock67]

Smashing stuff whyohwhy. Cracking description of the atmosphere.

[Ball Ox]

We'll be listening to them Kuntz sh!tin on about how great they were that for the next 30 fookin years. They will be clapping themselves on the back, just like the GAA. They got lucky on the day and they had an unfair ticket allocation.

Yours,
Leinster begrudger

[iamthelaw]

fockoffrangers said:

We'll be listening to them Kuntz sh!tin on about how great they were that for the next 30 fookin years. They will be clapping themselves on the back, just like the GAA. They got lucky on the day and they had an unfair ticket allocation.

Yours,
Leinster begrudger

C'mon rangers, if you want to get a rise out of people you have to post something that we might possibly believe you are serious about.

And the "unfair ticket allocation" comment is just untrue. And the "just like the GAA" comment is plain confusing.

[whyohwhy]

Cheers lads,

But I dont think I did the atmospshere justice, it made me speechless at times.

Must get a copy of the game now, especially with Hook & Popeys analysis.

I hear Hook tipped Biarritz to win, I think thats what did it for us.

[Ball Ox]

I am serious about it. Its the whole underdog arent we great, fighting irish bullsh!t. Did anyone see Paul "Rooster" O Connell when he got taken off? Did you see the big glazed look in his eyes, that was a play for the cameras.
Regarding the unfair ticket allocation, Munster clearly had more fans. Commentators used phrases such as "Its like Thomond Park not teh millenium stadium". And "the sixteenth player." The referee should have taken action such as asking some of them to leave or even postponing the game.
My argument re the GAA is part of the boll0x they talk about Croke Park being perhaps the best stadium in the world, when the received extensive handouts and Old Trafford is clearly better.

[iamthelaw]

fockoffrangers said:

Regarding the unfair ticket allocation, Munster clearly had more fans... The referee should have taken action such as asking some of them to leave or even postponing the game.

Classic. We should incorporate that as one of the rules of roccerball.

[eamo]

Tremendous piece whyohwhy. You cant put an atmosphere like that into words put you made a hell of an attempt. Definitely an article.

Can we see some actual opinions from fockoffrangers instead of ramblings littered with swear words?

[bandage]

eamo said:

Tremendous piece whyohwhy. You cant do an atmosphere like that justice. Definitely an article.

Can we see some actual opinions from fockoffrangers instead of ramblings littered with swear words?

Easy on the identifying people's identities - you might modify such posts!

[iamthelaw]

bandage said:

Easy on identifying people's identities - you might modify such posts!

Absolutely. Remember this is an open forum. I'd rather not have my manager hearing about it, wandering on, and seeing I'd posted almost a hundred messages in the last few weeks, as could easily be the case were my identity revealed.

Can the moderators not delete the offending names?