Munster taste European glory in Cardiff

Munster finally got their hands on the Heineken Cup after a decade of heartache today when they beat French champions Biarritz 23-19 in a thunderous final at the Millennium Stadium.

Munster, denied at the death in their two previous final appearances and losers in the semi or quarter-finals on five other occasions, pierced the much-vaunted French defence with two first-half tries.

Roared on by more than 50,000 of the 74,000 crowd, they kept their nerve in a gut-wrenching finale.

With the roof closed, the noise from the walls of red surpassed even that of Wales's grand-slamming winning triumph over Ireland last year and drove the Munster players on in the lung-bursting final quarter when the French searched for victory in their first final appearance.

Fly-half Ronan O'Gara, whose last-minute missed penalty cost the 2000 final against Northampton, had a terrific game, and landed all five kicks at goal.

Scrum-half Peter Stringer, robbed at the end of the 2002 final by Leicester's Neil Back, made amends in full with a clever try that turned the game late in the first half and helped earn him the man of the match award.

Biarritz got off to a flying start with a third-minute try by winger Sereli Bobo after Damien Traille burst through John Kelly's tackle in midfield.

Dimitri Yachvili converted but Munster regrouped well and got their fans singing with an O'Gara penalty.

Munster, perhaps over-excited by the deafening noise raining down on them, shunned two further kickable penalties soon after and, after winning their lineouts, were unable to turn possession into points.

They found a way through in the 17th minute, however, as centre Trevor Halstead barged his way over the line after a sharp pass by O'Gara. It was the first try Biarritz had conceded since the pool stages and though a Yachvili penalty made it 10-10 they conceded another in the 32nd minute.

It was an inspired piece of work by Stringer, who threw the slightest of dummies with a glance in Yachvili's direction before picking up at the back of a scrum and scuttling round the blindside to score. The Biarritz defence, so solid throughout the season, was nowhere to be seen and when O'Gara slotted the conversion the Irish had a deserved 17-10 halftime lead.

Munster earned another penalty immediately after the restart and opted for the posts. O'Gara obliged to open a 10-point lead.

Yachvili trimmed that to four with two of his own after 48 and 51 minutes and there then followed an increasingly tense 20 minute period where both teams hammered away at each other in midfield.

When Yachvili's unerring left boot broke the drought with his fourth penalty of the afternoon it was it 20-19 to Munster with 10 minutes remaining.

Biarritz sensed victory but they were too fired up at a ruck soon after and O'Gara kicked the subsequent penalty to almost lift the roof as the all-important four-point gap was restored.

The din became unbearable as Biarritz launched a final, desperate attack but the Munster defence held firm to spark joyous celebrations all around the ground.