When the going gets tough and all that, and this was almost as tough as it's ever been for Munster in the past few glorious seasons. Ulster had been as brave as they were cute and with eight minutes to go had driven a ferocious Munster drive back and were leading 21-16. Crisis? What crisis?
The natives, about 7,000 to 8,000 of them in Musgrave Park, were edgy and up went a great chant of "Munster, Munster". Cue the skipper and century man, Mick Galwey. Already having been a primary instigator in Munster cranking it up, he charged through a gap in the middle of the line just to turn up the decibel levels again, finding a supersub in Donnacha O'Callaghan to take the drive on some more.
David Wallace and the phenomenal Peter Clohessy probed the blind side, Anthony Foley intelligently charging onto the one-handed offload to finally breach the seemingly impenetrable white line and, caught just short of the line, give the try-scoring pass to the supporting Anthony Horgan.
Ronan O'Gara edged them in front with the conversion, the lead changing hands for the sixth and last time. With one bound Munster were free, and Ulster cracked, resorting immediately to catch-up only two points adrift. In the face of fierce defence, Ulster back-pedalled and Mark Blair was penalised for not releasing. O'Gara landed the penalty and the Munster pack suddenly mauling Ulster back at speed, a huge line-out drive yielded another penalty for O'Gara. Munster just wouldn't be denied.
The p.a. man heralded Munster's title and Mick Galwey's man-of-the-match award. Who writes these guys' scripts?
"I'm extremely proud to be associated with them," said Declan Kidney, not for the first time, nor one senses the last. "They've made their bit of history today. I don't know if people realise how difficult it can be to get going again. I've held my whist until now but of the last four teams to lose the European Cup final we're the first to win our national championship the next season. It just shows the mental strength of these players to be able to do that."
There couldn't have been a better way for Munster to break yet more new ground with a third Guinness Interprovincial championship on the trot. A veritable cracker, and credit for that goes to Ulster too for never was there a team more deserving of a bonus point.
Better in the set-pieces, defending hard, aggressively and heartily, and largely playing one-ruck rugby, they had struck stealthily twice into the first-half breeze and looked to have weathered a couple of compelling second-half storms to regain the lead and pull ahead. Whereupon Galwey led from the front, as did Clohessy, but the backrow of Alan Quinlan, Wallace and Foley had all upped a gear. The pack, and indeed backs' fierce low rucking had ensured some awesome bouts of continuity and pressure, and in the end Ulster ultimately cracked. Most would have.
Munster had elected to play with the breeze and O'Gara opened the scoring before Brad Free charged down O'Gara's ensuing kick amid a hint of offside, the scrum-half gathering to touch down. The tit-for-tat opening set the tone and continued apace. Jason Holland dummied sweetly through the middle from scrum ball and a couple of recycles later O'Gara deftly grubbered through the advancing white line for Crotty to beat two Ulstermen to the tightest of touchdown decisions. In fairness to Rolland, his nose was virtually within touching distance of the ball.
O'Gara converted but Humphreys quickly landed a penalty and Munster were still a little rattled. A quick tapped penalty 40 metres out was turned over and from an Ulster scrum just outside their 22 Humphreys looped on the outside, Ward supporting superbly on the inside. Free adroitly used decoy close-in runners to create space for Ryan Constable to round Jason Holland and feed James Topping, the winger chipping ahead and gathering short of the line to score. Humphreys converted for a 15-10 lead.
Ulster's solid scrum and one-ruck rugby enabled the out-half's pinpoint line-kicking to pin Munster back, but their own attempts to run the ball back foundered. Twice Topping fumbled relieving kicks by O'Gara, twice he gathered to counter infield and twice was penalised for not releasing after being turned over in the tackle by Anthony Foley and Holland in turn. But though O'Gara landed the first, from 40 metres, he missed the second from 30 to leave Ulster 1513 ahead at the break.
A stirring passage of driving and rucking, with Mullins just hauled down short of the line by Andy Ward, had ended with a penalty against Gary Longwell for offside and lashing out; O'Gara edging Munster in front. Surviving the third quarter storm, Humphreys landed a couple of penalties to move them 21-16 ahead. But when you know how to win, you don't know how to lose.
Scoring sequence: 2 mins O'Gara pen 3-0; 4 mins Free try 3-5; 14 mins Crotty try, O'Gara con 10-5; 20 mins Humphreys pen 10-8; 22 mins J Topping try, Humphreys con 10-15; 26 mins O'Gara pen 13-15; (half-time 13-15); 45 mins O'Gara pen 16-15; 63 mins Humphreys pen 16-18; 65 mins Humphreys pen 16-21; 72 mins Horgan try, O'Gara con 23-21; 76 mins O'Gara pen 26-21; 80 mins O'Gara pen 29-21.
MUNSTER: D Crotty; J Kelly, M Mullins, J Holland, AN Other; R O'Gara, P Stringer; P Clohessy, F Sheahan, J Hayes, M Galwey, M O'Driscoll, AN Other, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: C McMahon for Foley (41-45 mins), D O'Callaghan for O'Driscoll (71 mins)
ULSTER: G Henderson; J Topping, R Constable, J Bell, S Stewart; D Humphreys (capt), B Free; J Fitzpatrick, R Weir, S Best, P Johns, G Longwell, R Nelson, T McWhirter, A Ward. Replacements: D Topping for McWhirter (63 mins), C Boyd for Best (74 mins), M Blair for Johns (74 mins), S Bell for Free (77 mins).
Referee: Alain Rolland (IRFU).
