Kidney departs on high
Munster coach Declan Kidney shows his delight as captain Paul O'Connell parades the Heinken Cup after the 16-13 win over Toulouse in yesterday's final in the Millennium stadium
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Late one Saturday afternoon in May 2000, Declan Kidney stood in the centre of a wide circle of Munster players in Twickenham and told them they should be proud of the effort that had taken them to within a couple of points of being champions of Europe.
This was just a year after they had qualified for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup for the first time. Subsequently they found that defeat to Northampton to be as frustrating as it was disheartening, for they weren't sure if or when they would ever get back to that stage again.
Yesterday evening in the Millennium Stadium at around seven o'clock, Kidney again found himself in the centre of another circle of Munster players. This time he was singing instead of speech-making. Or at least that's how it seemed from our vantage point.
There were still fireworks going off and the PA was giving it loads and the fans hadn't had their final say either, but the unbridled joy evident in that gathering was the preserve of those who have achieved greatness. Munster took their place yesterday among the elite, a place reserved for those who have won the trophy more than once.
It wasn't enough that they had been winners once and runners-up twice, or that they have been ever-present in the knock-out stages since their breakthrough season of 1999. They needed to be winners again, and by beating Toulouse they knocked over the most successful team in the history of this great competition. Kidney can leave now for Ireland with a very remarkable coaching record further embellished.
"Mick Galwey said eight years ago that you have to lose one to win one and perhaps we had to lose two to win two," Kidney said. "The lessons learned those times were put to fruition this time and I'd like to thank those guys who have been part of this over the past 10 years and all those who have been part of it in over 100 years of Munster rugby. We're just the lucky ones. All the work is done at the clubs and the schools and it's true that the cream comes to the top."
It's likely that himself and new Ireland manager Paul McNaughton will fetch up in some capacity on the Ireland tour to New Zealand and Australia, which leaves on Friday, and by then Kidney will have been able to put his Munster years into perspective. They made him as a coach, and without him they would never have become the operation they are now. His greatest legacy is that filling his job, for which there have been no interviews yet, is now such a tall order, because it is one of the top jobs in world rugby. It mightn't have looked that way in south west London eight years ago.
This has been their toughest of journeys. They had to get out of the most difficult pool they have ever been placed in, and they had to do it without their captain, Paul O'Connell. Great credit is due to Ireland team doctor Gary O'Driscoll for the fact that he saw any action this season. And the player himself made up for lost time when he arrived. He was immense yesterday.
"I think for us, it was a war and that's what we made it," he said. "It was a great game to win from the forwards' point of view. We took the game by the neck and closed it out."
As ever with Munster there were times when they looked in serious trouble along the way. When Clermont Auvergne were unloading on them in the first half of their tie in Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin, you could see Munster drowning in the pool. And by the end it was the French who were stuck in the deep end.
Yesterday too Munster had it tough, especially in the first half, albeit without haemorrhaging points as they had done that day in January. They rode out the rough patches and those who at times struggled, came though in credit in the end. Two of Kidney's biggest calls this season had been the introduction of Tomas O'Leary and Denis Hurley. Both had moments of acute discomfort yesterday, and both are the better for having survived it.
They will be able to look back on this as a dream season. Incredibly, Munster have never lost a Heineken Cup game with referee Nigel Owens in charge, and while over the last two rounds he made big calls in their favour, these things have a tendency to balance themselves out.
Since they started aiming high, they have taken plenty of punishment with no apparent reward. Yesterday they got the pay out. Their coach can take his next step with the satisfaction of having done a first-class job.
And they can look forward to more days when the post-match huddle is all about celebration.
Heineken Cup final special, Pages 2-4
