The final chapter? Munster's obituary has been written before and shelved, the players of the province showing a remarkable propensity to haul themselves off the floor over the past five years. They may do so again but yesterday at Lansdowne Road faces betrayed the emotional scars of another gut-wrenching defeat.

It wasn't a vintage performance from the red jerseys, far from it, but with 12 minutes remaining they had put themselves in a position to win: or perhaps more accurately it was theirs to lose. They needed to wind down the clock, a facility which has been a hallmark in the past. It was about the basics, slowing down the game and trading on field position.

The man who would have revelled in that responsibility, Ronan O'Gara, was sitting in the stand, his involvement prematurely curtailed by a hamstring injury. Munster coach Alan Gaffney admitted: "The loss of Ronan (O'Gara) was enormous for us, even though Jason (Holland) did play well. His (O'Gara's) kicking game would have been of enormous benefit to us in the second-half particularly.

"Ronan possibly, and I say possibly, could have closed that game out when we were 10 in front. We didn't have the ability to do that. To miss touch as many times as we did, when we had control of the game was very expensive.

"We missed too many first-up tackles. The game was there to be won but you can't miss first-up tackles against a side like Wasps. Unfortunately we did and we allowed them to gain momentum, which is one of the things we knew they would be seeking to do and it was our critical aim to stop them going forward.

"We needed to slow the game down a bit but we didn't. We allowed them to keep the ball in play and counter-attack. When we were down to 13 men it was a bit difficult. We both suffered having two men sin binned in the game each but we didn't handle it all that well."

There was a candour to the Munster post mortem and none epitomised this more than captain Jim Williams, an outstanding contributor to his side's cause: "We only have ourselves to blame. We talked about discipline, about field position and we did that for the second 10 minutes of that (second) half. But we let them back into the game. Wasps play a very good brand of pressure rugby and I think Munster are still learning to try and play that way: (they've) had far too many games to learn to master it. We didn't put kicks out, we didn't do the basics and we got players off the paddock. We paid the ultimate price and our defence was still a problem."

Referee Nigel Williams was singled out by both teams; there weren't many bouquets thrown his way. Wasps were guilty of "professional fouls", particularly in the first half, an attitude that frustrated Gaffney. "It's a cynical way to play a game. You're in a situation where you can't develop anything. It's very hard to build your game. I think to finish up with two yellow cards each . . . well it squared the ledger. It's something we identified before the game with the referee. No further comment."

Williams admitted he had spoken to the referee but eschewed any resentment towards the official. He simply acknowledged Munster had victory within their sights and it was the frailty of the team that ultimately cost them a semi-final victory.

It was hardly opportune to rake through the ashes of another bitterly disappointing defeat but questions invariably strayed towards next season. Gaffney mused: "There's no reason to suspect we can't do it again. It (defeat) does have any effect. The boys have a lot of courage and pride in what they do. They have a great work ethic. There is no reason to expect we can't come back."

A shining positive on a tough day for the Irish province was the fantastic support they received. Gaffney concluded: "The support in the street; I have never seen anything like it in all the time I've been involved in rugby. The players got a buzz out of it and I sure did. There were tears in my eyes. It was fantastic; loved it." A bittersweet afternoon.