European Cup Diary: Trevor Brennan is heading to Cardiff to cheer on Munster and to indulge in a bit of corporate entertainment.

Well, it's the week of the final and no doubt the expectation in Ireland is that this is Munster's year. They've been here before, with two finals and three semi-finals, and surely they couldn't lose another one.

For sure, a chunk of their players weren't involved in some of those defeats but a lot of them were. They know what it feels like to lose a final and that is a powerful motivation. They won't want to let themselves or their supporters down.

What can you say about those supporters? They've been there with them through thick and thin, and have turned up in their thousands even when they've been beaten. One game that sticks out in my mind is the final of 2000 when they lost 9-8 to Northampton.

The team returned to Shannon airport and I remember seeing Mick Galwey with a Munster hat, some stitches over his eye and what I'm pretty sure were tears in his eyes. I could only imagine they were there because of the many hundreds or thousands of supporters who had turned up at the airport even after they had lost the game. If there was a European Cup for supporters they'd have won the competition every year since it started.

In the build-up to this game Munster have had their injury worries. Or do they? I think not, or at least not on the scale that has been suggested. Declan Kidney is a shrewd operator. I only ever had him twice as a coach, and both times it was with the Ireland A team.

I remember before one game at a team meeting in the hotel when we were playing France in Ravenhill he told us a story about an oil tanker on fire in New York. None of the fire crews could get near the tanker because the heat was so intense so the mayor of the city offered a reward of $100,000 to any crew who could put it out.

Television crews, media and the public began turning up and over the hill came this little fire engine. It came down hurtling through the crowds past the TV crews and the other fire engines, straight into the oil tanker and a few firemen hopped out with sand and small hoses to put out the fire. When the mayor was presenting the chief fireman with the cheque for $100,000 he asked him what he would do with the money. "The first thing I'm going to do is get a new set of brakes for the engine!"

The message of course was that no matter how big the challenge is don't put the brakes on. He's a masterful man motivator, and had a a great way of making the A squad feel very relaxed about their games in a small amount of time together. And his results with the As showed his methods worked very well.

It may not be a very high-scoring game but I think it's going to be a truly great battle, particularly in the backrow with Leamy, Foley and Wallace up against Betsen, Lievremont and Harinordoquy. Against Munster, Harinordoquy mightn't be able to play as loose as he normally does but Betsen and Lievremont, who is similar to Foley, with lots of quick tap and go options, have plenty of experience.

It will be a fair old battle in the tight five as well with Horan, Flannery, Hayes, O'Callaghan and O'Connell up against Lecouls, August, Balan, Couzinet and Thion.

One thing that Munster did very well against Leinster, which we didn't do when Toulouse played them in the quarter-finals, was that they didn't compete at the lineout with their backrow, but instead let them push out onto Contepomi, D'Arcy and O'Driscoll. I can see them putting a lot of pressure on Yachvili and Peyrelongue, who is probably the weakest link in their team. But Biarritz do have a lot of power with Traille in the middle, while Bobo and Gobolet are two massive, quick wingers.

Munster will not have their own way in the lineouts, where Biarritz complement Couzinet and Thion with Harinordoquy, who takes about 60 or 70 per cent of their ball. But I do think Munster might have an edge up front, mainly because of Paul O'Connell, who has won four man-of-the-match awards in this Heineken Cup campaign.

Jim Glennon texted me after the semi-final to tell me that Superman wears Paul O'Connell pyjamas at night time, which says it all really.

Biarritz beat Montpellier last Friday, giving them an extra day to prepare for this final, and came through without any injuries. They are expected to be at full-strength and to give you an idea of how seriously they're preparing for this final, they headed off on Monday with a 32-man squad (so they could train against full opposition) to Cassene'land just outside Dax for a two-day training camp. They are then heading off to Cardiff today - four days before the final.

In all the interviews or comments I've read coming out of their camp, they're saying that they believe they can win the game, and why not with the calibre of squad they have? We lost to Biarritz the week after we lost to Leinster.

Spirits were low and we were a long way from full-strength, whereas they were at home and had their strongest team out, but, in saying that, Bobo scored two soft tries. Since then we've had a good run of form, beating Stade Francais, Montferrand and Brive.

There's been a much more relaxed atmosphere around the club since the Leinster defeat. Everyone has lifted their heads up. The lads bought a stereo and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde has been left in charge of the music, which has been blasting out of the changing room every day.

Everybody seems more focused and playing well, and I've been happy with my own form. We've this week off, and play Bourgoin away in our last regulation league match, and it looks like we'll be playing Stade Francais in the semi-finals. With Europe out of our reach, and out of our way, we're going all out for the French Championship.

Last Saturday's win over Brive was our last home game of the season and Isitolo Maka's last home game for the club after six seasons here.

He got a great send off from the crowd, and I know it might seem hard to believe, but he was lifted head and shoulders and carried around the pitch for a lap of honour. I passed on volunteering for that one as the oul' back was at me.

I'd also like to wish Aiden McCullen the best as he heads off to London Irish at the end of the season, off to the dizzy heights and bright lights of London. Toulouse was just too small for him and his fiancee Niamh.

This week I'll be flying to Cardiff myself. Liam Toland came over to Toulouse last weekend with 22 fellas for his stag party, and the bar echoed to The Fields of Athenry, Red is the Rose, and Stand Up and Fight. Seven days in advance half of them were already wearing Munster jerseys and getting into the build-up.

Myself and a former Toulouse player, Eric Bonneval, have been asked to do a bit of corporate entertainment in Cardiff. I'll be proudly wearing the number six jersey of Alan Quinlan, which he swapped with mine after Toulouse beat Munster in the semi-finals in 2003.

I just have visions of that fella in the wig singing Stand Up and Fight when it's all over. Hope I'm right.

If I was to make a forecast, I do believe this is Munster's year. They have the players; the right mix of experience and youth.

As they showed against Leinster, who may have had the better backs on paper, when they put their minds to it, when it's really needed, they know what they have to do to win a Cup match and they deliver. They have that mental strength.

C'mon Munster.

(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)