In the final analysis, this still goes down as one of Munster's best ever seasons - inter-provincial champions and European Cup quarter-finalists - but the way it ended yesterday in Colomiers rankled with them and will rankle with them for days.

What made the defeat all the more galling wasn't just that they lost by 23-9, more that they knew they'd played badly and would have had a pretty good chance of winning had they played like they had been doing prior to their enforced break.

"This was a match I really thought we'd win and if we had played, we would have beaten them," admitted a bitterly disappointed Declan Kidney. "In a few days we might reflect that it was a good season, but right now it's very disappointing. Some people might think that's a good sign but if we weren't disappointed now, we wouldn't have believed we could win - and we did.

"We didn't get a chance to play and it's a very disappointing way to finish the season. If we had played anywhere near our potential it might make us feel better, but we know we didn't."

The Munster management couldn't put their finger on the reasons for such an abject performance. The five-week lay-off, during which time Munster were placed at an additional disadvantage by having so many players involved in various international set-ups, didn't help.

"I have my own opinions on that and I will be passing on my own opinions about that," said Kidney, clearly intimating that the Munster Director of Rugby will notify the relevant IRFU powerbrokers of the damage done to Munster's campaign by the five-week lay-off - placing them at a severe disadvantage compared to Colomiers.

But clearly too, however bad French sides are on their travels, Munster are every bit as bad. It's hard to believe they could possibly have played this badly in Cork or Limerick. This was their fifth straight defeat in the Cup in France.

The wounds were physical as well as psychological, and though he had calmed down from the incensed figure who had finished the game, Peter Clohessy was still venting his spleen. "They were spitting at us and gouging us," he said, with Mick Galwey concurring. Kidney conceded that the game turned quite ugly by the end. "I don't like seeing scenes like that and I don't condone them in any manner of means, but you've got to look at where they came from.

Galwey hit a similar theme to Kidney's when saying: "We didn't perform up to the standard we had set in the past. In particular when we needed it most, unfortunately we didn't get off to the best of starts.

"We had a lot of possession in the second-half but we're bitterly disappointed that we didn't score. It's a bad way to end the season."