IT IS not just a red tide flowing into Cardiff for this afternoon’s Heineken Cup final at the Millennium Stadium. Any neutral — which takes in both Wales and England on this occasion — will wish Munster well on their third attempt to lift European club rugby’s highest honour by beating Biarritz.

This is no slight on the French club who have worked so hard for more than a decade to cast off a somewhat unfashionable image and become a force both within and outside their national border. But Munster have brought everything to the tournament that the organisers had hoped for when they created it during the 1995-96 season — colour, bravery, passion and a band of supporters the envy of the Continent.

In addition they have played in two finals, those of 2000 and 2002, and lost them both. Surely this will be third time lucky for a side whose consistency is such that seven members of the starting XV that lost 9-7 to Northampton at Twickenham six years ago remain. Similarly there are seven survivors (not the same septet) from the side beaten in such contentious circumstances by Leicester four years ago at the Millennium Stadium.

“No team has the divine right to win it,” Anthony Foley, Munster’s admirable captain, said. “I don’t think what happened in the past matters. We will play from minute to minute and see what happens.”

Pursuing that policy this season has taken Munster to areas unexplored. During previous European campaigns they have tended to play within their limitations and emerged from their shells only when the match had almost slipped from their grasp.

During a season in which, like Biarritz, they have lost only their opening European game (to Sale Sharks), Munster have given rein to free expression. They have not forgotten the territorial game that Ronan O’Gara executes so well but they have used the skills of their backs to complement the muscle of the forwards, allowing them to deal not only with the formidable Perpignan in the quarter-finals but the running ability of Leinster Lions in the semi-finals.

Now they have to do it in a final, uncertain whether Biarritz will find similar conviction. The French champions did just enough to get past Sale and Bath in the knockout stages, as they did in last season’s semi-final, when they looked to have the better of Stade Français in Paris, only to be caught by a sucker punch at the death; it is as though that memory has haunted them ever since.

“You have to watch what we do in our own championship,” Thomas Lièvremont, their captain who seems almost Foley’s twin at No 8, said. “We have the best team in attack, we don’t want to close down games. It’s because we haven’t enough experience in the Heineken Cup, we have lost games because we stopped playing.”

It is, however, crucial that Munster have experienced a final twice before and this is the first time for Biarritz. While they have been successful on the road, most notably against Leicester and London Wasps in recent years, a final brings its own claustrophobia.

Munster have taken the calculated risk of starting Marcus Horan, the Ireland prop who has not played since tearing calf muscles against Perpignan seven weeks ago. “He has done everything with the medics to get into condition,” Declan Kidney, his coach, said, but Horan must be short of match fitness.

At the same time, Kidney made the remarkable claim that Munster’s job was to develop players for Ireland, while that of Biarritz was to win trophies for themselves. Tell that to the hordes from Cork and Limerick who have taken up every available space in Cardiff — with or without tickets — to constitute a larger crowd (by some 3,000) than attended last weekend’s wonderful FA Cup final between Liverpool and West Ham United.

There is a connection between Munster’s team and their followers which lies at the core of rugby’s values and that will find a voice before, during and after today’s game. They want to see their players crowned kings of Europe, not for Ireland’s sake but their own, yet a formidable obstacle lies in the way. On the two previous occasions a French team have played in a European final in Cardiff — Toulouse in 1996, Brive in 1997 — they have won and Biarritz are well equipped to follow suit.

They ran through some of their cup final drills during the 50-point win over Montpellier a week ago, a game that almost cost them the services of Damien Traille. The centre has recovered from a bruised thigh to form a potent combination with Philippe Bidabé but the unknown factor is whether Biarritz realise just how good they can be on the biggest occasion they have faced as a club.

HOW THEY LINE UP

BIARRITZ: N Brusque; J-B Gobelet, P Bidabé, D Traille, S Bobo; J Peyrelongue, D Yachvili; V Balan, B August, C Johnston, J Thion, D Couzinet, S Betsen, I Harinordoquy, T Lièvremont. Replacements: B Noirot, B Lecouls, O Olibeau, T Dusautoir, M Carizza, J Dupuy, F Martin-Arramburu.

MUNSTER: S Payne; A Horgan, J Kelly, T Halstead, I Dowling; R O’Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley. Replacements: D Fogarty, F Pucciariello, M O’Driscoll, A Quinlan, T O’Leary, J Manning, R Henderson.

Referee: C White (England).