RUGBY: This was for their supporters, who seemed to make up half of the 30,076 attendance. It was for the preceding management, and for the players who've gone before them, and the rest of the 36 players who took part in a 10-match trek to their holy grail, 10 of whom were back in Ireland voluntarily playing AIL games. But most of all it was for themselves and their own piece of mind.

Unsurprisingly, "relief" was Munster's over-riding emotion after their 37-17 Celtic League final win over Neath on Saturday. mantra-like, they all spoke of "laying a few ghosts" and "getting a monkey off our backs". Actually, it hadn't been spoken of at many team meetings. It didn't have to be. Four final defeats would have been too grim to contemplate. "Doubts start to creep into your mind," admitted Peter Stringer afterwards, "and you begin to wonder if you're destined never to win one of these things."

In truth, it didn't quite seem like the occasion they deserved. In a 76,000-capacity ground, the crowd was a little lost. Most of all perhaps, there was no following the sense of occasion which accompanied the epic win over Gloucester. How do you top that? And for once they won without too much theatrics. This, unusually for Munster, was comfy.

Yet the support was, again, phenomenal. After the Neath contingent cleared off, not even hanging around for a token drink in any of Cardiff's hostelries, more than half the crowd seemed to have remained for Munster's celebration walk around the pitch.

Mick Galwey, ever a man of his people, left the pitch for a bear hug and memento snap with his brother and other friends from Castleisland. Describing them as the best supporters in Europe, Galwey said: "I was amazed at the amount of people who came over. We'd half, if not more, of the attendance and that's fantastic. It goes to show the supporters follow us through thick and thin, they always have done, and hopefully they always will. I think they like what they see, they see an honest team who gives it everything. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose but I think everyone feels part of this Munster set-up."

How much it meant to him personally was evident as his voice began to quiver a little.

"Rugby has been very good to me and I've got a lot out of rugby, but it's great to just go home with a trophy. We've gone back to Shannon Airport with our tails between our legs really, but with great support there, so it will be nice to go back tonight and stick a cup up in the air.

"I've been very lucky winning with Shannon and Kerry and the whole lot, but Munster as we all know is the one closest to my heart and it will be great going back tonight."

A bit emotional then?

"Very emotional, yeah. It's not the end of the road, because for a lot of people it's the start of the road, but it's a weight off my shoulders and off my chest, and today I think the rest of the players can feel it. We can look back on today as the day we stepped up another notch, because we have our trophy now. The last thing we ever wanted to be remembered for was to be a team which lost four finals."

As events transpired, Munster's chartered flight was delayed for three hours at Cardiff Airport on Saturday. The engineer who was due to inspect the plane was waylaid because his car broke down. So all bar about 500 of the huge crowd awaiting their return at Shannon aiport had dispersed by the time their plane arrived at 11.30 p.m. Fittingly, they went on to Peter Clohessy's bar for a reception.

The X-ray on Ronan O'Gara's ankle injury confirmed he'd only sustained bruising and according to a Munster spokesperson it won't endanger his preparations for the Six Nations opener against Scotland next Sunday week.

With no citing commissioner, the onus is on Munster if any action is to be taken against Neath flanker Brett Sinkinson for his stamping on O'Gara's ankle. They have a 48-hour window to do so, but as Alan Gaffney indicated in the aftermath of this match, most probably they won't. If so, this latest example further highlights rugby's poor disciplinary measures, and more specifically the organising of this tournament and its need for a chief executive who might bring about such changes.