Donal Lenihan believes Donnacha Ryan "spooked" Munster in Saturday's pulsating Heineken Champions Cup draw with Racing 92 in Thomond Park.
JJ Hanrahan converted Andrew Conway's late try to rescue a 21-21 draw for the hosts who had looked like they were going to lose to French opposition in the competition for the first time since Clermont Auvergne turned them over back in December 2014.
Old boy Ryan - who played 167 times for Munster - exerted massive influence in the second row on his return to Limerick, and Lenihan said the men in red seemed distracted by his presence.
"If you go back and look at games where they've played against Donnacha Ryan, he certainly seems to second-bluff, or spook Munster," Lenihan told RTÉ 2fm's Game On.
"Especially in the first half you could see there was a hesitation there, it was almost as if Ryan's presence was creating issues that Munster shouldn't have worried about.
"I've been a huge admirer of Donnacha Ryan for years and years. I was actually his mentor when he was a young boy in the academy. He was in UCC. I used to meet him quite a lot.
"He likes to play it like, 'I'm the country boy from Tipperary', but he's far more than that. He's a highly intelligent guy, although the times I used to meet him to sit down and give him advice, all he wanted was for me to pay for his dinner. By God could he eat!"
Lenihan said Racing exposed some issues in Johann van Graan's side, who are trying to adopt a more expansive style this campaign.
It was a display that mixed the good with the bad.
"With ten minutes to go if you thought they were going to get two points you'd certainly have grabbed it," added Lenihan.
"Certain parts of Munster's game really impressed me.
"There's no question that their attacking structure is developing but I thought it was a bit ironic that at a time when Munster are a bit more creative, when they're looking to put more width on their game, their set-piece came under huge pressure.
"To be fair they addressed those problems. In the final quarter they showed great character.
"When you look at the last two weeks, they picked up the four-try bonus at Ospreys deep into injury-time, and then to get an outstanding try from Andrew Conway in the corner with a brilliant conversion from JJ Hanrahan... I thought Racing were outstanding and for Munster, for me, that was two points gained because overall Racing were the better side."
