RUGBY:THE YEAR of the French. Following on from Les Bleus' Grand Slam, Biarritz yesterday joined Toulouse in an all-French final of the Heineken Cup in Stade de France on May 22nd, blowing away Munster's wilting challenge to the tune of 18-7. Only Cardiff Blues can potentially poop the party when Toulon host them the next day in the Amlin Challenge Cup final. C'est la vie.

Who knows, it might have been different if the semi-finals were at home, or even on neutral grounds, but a pair of away semi-finals to the French proved a couple of bridges too far for Ireland’s European standard-bearers.

In truth, Munster fell away more disappointingly than Leinster had done 24 hours beforehand in what was a comparatively poorer quality encounter in San Sebastian. In a reprise of the first semi-final, being obliterated in the scrums was one thing, but having their normally prolific lineout dissected was simply too much to cope with.

Despite looking dangerous whenever they ran at Biarritz and taking the lead through a Keith Earls’ try, such were their starvation rations that they were increasingly forced to do so from virtually impossible positions. By the end, Munster cut a slightly sad and well beaten force.

Though again played in a constant din of drums, it was a far cry from the energy-sapping heat of the quarter-final which Biarritz won here five years ago. The rain drizzled under cloud-filled skies, and at around 13 degrees it was even a little chilly.

Even so, by the end, the 6,000-plus Red Army had been drowned out and Munster looked well beaten, mentally as much physically.

“It’s very difficult to put into words after losing two semi-finals in a row,” admitted Tony McGahan. “I think for myself and the group, we really feel it’s two wasted opportunities to give ourselves a chance of getting to the final.”

Leading 7-3 at the break, and even with a slight wind behind them, Munster looked well placed, but asked what changed, the Munster coach said: “I thought two things: Biarritz played very cleverly in the second half. I thought their set-piece was excellent, they kicked to the corners and put us under a tremendous amount of pressure. We really shut up shop and tried to defend ourselves, which didn’t give us any platform whatsoever.”

“The set-piece was a concern all day really,” he admitted. “They certainly dominated that area of the game and consequently we had no platform to play off whatsoever. There lies field position, there lies momentum, and there lies penalties at the back end of things.”

Paul O’Connell’s sheer physical presence was missed but with only one of this pack under 30, invariably there’ll be those who wonder if the old dogs of war have another Heineken Cup in them.

“We’ve been written off all season and to get back to a semi-final and fall not too far away from the money is disappointing,” said McGahan, before adding defiantly: “But there’s a very, very strong group and we’ll certainly respond to this and make sure we’re in contention next year.”

If the weekend underlined one thing it is that the scrum is Irish rugby’s Achilles heel now. It’s tough when you battle through the pool stages after losing your opening game and then come through a titanic quarter-final to be pitted with an away May Day rendezvous with the most successful club in both French and Heineken Cup history.

Toulouse have prioritised Europe on their run-in and thus reached their sixth final by beating Leinster 26-16 at Le Stadium on Saturday. But it’s been five years since their third H Cup. Little about yesterday dispelled the feeling that they’re about due another one.

The potential prize of regaining the Magners League didn’t seem like much of a consolation but Michael Cheika saw no difficulty in refocusing their ambitions.

“Absolutely not, no way. The team’s bigger than the tournaments,” said the Leinster coach.

“Everyone wants to win tournaments; from the first day I was there that’s what we wanted to do. But we’re gonna have to wear this and it’s going to be hard because we really believed we could go on and win it.

“And then we have to go back and understand, right, here’s an opportunity for us to get back on to the field. Two more games and we could have a Magners League final in Dublin.

“That would be a great way to send off our crowd because they’ve been fantastic here and fantastic all year. So no, it’s not hard to get back from that. We just have to suck it up and get back on with business.”

That, too, is the Cheika way, and it would be a more fitting finale.