AT THE end the Munster players sunk to their knees as a nation rose to acclaim them. In the middle of the field, Peter Stringer kissed the ground and quietly gave thanks before allowing the noise and the thrill to sweep him away. His try had been audacious and courageous, nipping through the corridor normally blocked by Serge Betsen and returning Munster to a game they struggling to hang on to.

“It was something that was off the cuff,” Stringer said. “You just have a look to see if it’s on, and if it’s on you have a go. Luckily the winger was infield and left a nice little gap. I’m just thrilled. The whole of Munster and many more were here. It’s special. This was for them as well as for us. They’ve given so much over the years. They’ve travelled everywhere with us.”

For years Declan Kidney has remained an inscrutable presence on the line. Any utterances were routinely frisked for ambiguity, all quotes usually sent into the public domain in grey suits. At the end of yesterday afternoon, with his eyes reddened, he almost allowed himself a moment, but there is always work to do.

“I think you try to put your emotions in a box for the match because that’s what the job was, and just concentrate on staying with it. It was hard at one stage when it flashed on the big screen to O’Connell Street (Limerick). That was a bit special. You just had to make sure you got back into the moment.

“The goodwill poured into the team has been huge. This year we’ve managed to give something back to those people who’ve sacrificed salaries and taken out loans to come and watch us play matches through the years. This is a payback to them.

“There are no words. I think Ronan (O’Gara) said after the semi-final that unless you were in our dressing room you didn’t know what it meant to us. They beat Leinster who were going well in the Celtic League; they beat Sale, who were going well in the English League; and they’ve beaten the best team in the French league. In the second half we went a bit dull and probably didn’t attack them as much.

“We wanted to play good rugby today, but I guess at the end of a day like today it’s all about the result. We had a sweaty end there, but that’s always the way with Munster. You never do things the easy way.”

After 75 minutes of perpetual motion Paul O’Connell ended the game with his ankle strapped, fretting on the line alongside Anthony Foley as Munster started to wobble without their soundest pillars to lean on.

“The way the fixtures panned out for us the last few weeks and the injuries we’ve had, I don’t think we had the match fitness in the pack we normally have to play such a high-intensity game,” said O’Connell. “We played in the first half and we didn’t do it in the second half. But we held on through a lot of experience, great guys coming off the bench, phenomenal support.

“I was struggling a small bit with the ankle. I spent four weeks off my feet and I wasn’t as match fit as I’d like to have been but it’s easy come off when you’ve a panel like this.”

For Biarritz much of the final was spent trying to redress the damage caused by one mistake. As they built up an almost irresistible momentum towards the end it seemed they might complete the job, but in the end they were burned off. “We gave away a lot of gifts in the first half,” said Biarritz coach Patrice Lagisquet. “It was a mix-up for the (Stringer) try at the scrum. We had talked about defending in that situation. But we can’t take anything away from Munster.”

Their day. Their glory.