Leicester beat Munster 15-9 in Millennium Stadium to become first team to retain Heineken Cup. There was no fairy tale ending for Declan Kidney or Peter Clohessy as Munster's efforts to snatch victory at the death were denied by an excellent Leicester defence which, saw them make try saving tackles on two occasions in the last five minutes.
O'Gara had given Munster the advantage early on thanks to his success in front of the posts as Leicester's Tim Stimpson failed to find his range. It was Geordan Murphy who got the opening try though when he latched onto a Stimpson pass to leave Leicester trailing 6-5 at half time. Munster upped the tempo in the second half and hard work by the front row of Peter Clohessy, Frankie Sheahan and John Hayes paid off when Darren Garforth was penalised for not binding leaving O'Gara to stretch the lead to 9-5.
Shortly after though Austin Healey took a pass from Harry Ellis inside Munster's 22, before breaking Ronan O'Gara's weak tackle to score under the posts and Stimpson converted to give Leicester the lead for the first time in the match. Then just when it mattered most O'Gara's kicking let him down as he missed two opportunities to level the game only to see Stimpson stretch the lead to 15-9 with minutes remaining.
Munster never gave up though and were unlucky twice near the end when John O'Neill's effort to cross the line was deemed unsuccessful by TV replays and Jeremy Staunton found three Leicester men in his way only yards from the line. The disappointment was there for all to see at the end as Munster suffered Heineken Cup final defeat for the second time in three years and Leicester became the only team to win it twice.
Filed by Johnny Proby
