Saturday's final will come down to which side is cuter on the day and wants it more, says Trevor Brennan

TWO TRIBES go to war. As Anthony Foley once said, "Rugby is basically a street fight with a ball."

For the 2006 final between Munster and Biarritz, 74,534 spectators packed into the Millennium Stadium and I'd say 70,000 of them were supporting Munster. As the two teams warmed up and the sound of The Fields of Athenry echoed around the ground, I sat up in the stand with my wife, Paula, and said: "Isn't this amazing?"

Fifteen minutes before the kick-off the two squads returned to the dressing-rooms and when they emerged from the tunnel a couple of minutes before kick-off U2's Vertigo blasted out of the loudspeakers. The noise that rose up, hit the closed stadium roof and then reverberated around the ground was deafening. It is something I'll never forget, and I was only a supporter. It was a great final and I'm sure next Saturday will be every bit as good.

Muhammad Ali once said: "If I was a garbage man, I'd be the best garbage man in the world."

I know as a professional rugby player you always challenge yourself. That's the beauty of the game. When I played, I worked hard on all elements of the game, never more so than when I came to Toulouse, because that was just the Toulouse way.

As I sit here in Lourdes, in the Hotel Mercure, in room 148, writing this article, I've been up since 6am watching all the tribes of people visiting the city in this, the 150th anniversary of the apparitions. The place is thronged, and I'm over here with my mother, my mother-in-law and a friend of theirs, Rose Farrell.

The hotel is owned by Henri Rancoule, whose son Jean-Michel was the agent who recommended me to Guy Noves. Henri was a winger who played in five successive French Championship finals with Lourdes, 1955 to '59, only losing the '55 and '59 finals. He played 26 times for France and crossed paths with Tony O'Reilly a few times, while Jean-Michel played in the '85 and '86 finals with Toulouse, winning both.

I'd hope at some stage today to get some time to myself to pray, and was thinking of maybe picking up a couple of good-luck charms and some holy water for the boys. But Henri told me that Jean-Louis Putinier, the Toulouse team manager, is en route today to pick up the holy water for the final, along with Jean-Michel, so I'll probably have lunch with them.

Coming up to a final is the silly season, when the lucky charms come out. Photos of Padre Pio. The lucky socks. The lucky underpants. The rabbits' feet.

Prior to the 2003 final when we played Perpignan in Lansdowne Road, the local bishop called up Guy Noves and invited us to the church, where he gave us all a piece of paper. It recounted great battles in history between the people of Toulouse and Catalonia. We were all told to stick them in our socks for the game.

I remember reading an article recounting when Donncha O'Callaghan scored a try for Christians in his school days. When he bent down after scoring the try there was a holy cross on a chain in the grass. He picked it up, stuck it in his pocket and never cleaned it. It probably still has blades from the pitch on it. He keeps it in an old chair his sister gave him, along with a few other religious trinkets he has kept.

But that's not just the Munster way. It's everyone's way. Toulouse have their customs as well. The pappys - the fellas who do your jerseys and socks along with other jobs around the club - pour holy water along both goal-lines from one corner flag to the other before all finals Toulouse take part in, a tradition that goes back 20 years.

I used to carry pictures of Padre Pio and my brother Damien myself. Seba Zaore, our fitness trainer, gave my father a lucky charm and is always giving out bracelets, neck chains and other lucky charms to the players. I'm not there but I can visualise what it's like this week, with people coming to training sessions with different things. One year some fans gave us a four-leaf clover, laminated in plastic, with the club crest on it, which I still have.

Seba gave us each a bracelet with three different metals in it, representing wind, fire and rain, to bring us strength.

This is probably the most unpredictable final yet. Two great teams, two great traditions, two distinct styles and both CVs boast huge successes as well as losses at the final hurdle.

It's definitely a final that will depend on the day. Munster are a team that always turn up on the day but if Toulouse do so as well it's going to be an epic.

Another Anthony Foley quote: "Once you go into that arena, it's 15 against 15. It's about making the other side take a backward step, putting them into retreat."

It's about other things too. Can you be cuter than your opposition? Can you lull them into a false sense of security and set them up for a fall? You can go about it in many ways. A man with a strong will can beat a man who's faster and stronger. You can intimidate a guy if you never let him see that you're tired. Just let him know early on and make sure he gets the message that you are going to be around all day.

There's going to be plenty of that psychological confrontation on Saturday.

Much will depend on luck, and maybe even a miracle; the bounce of a ball, whichever God you believe in, because that is how close a call it will be on Saturday. It may not necessarily be a case of who outshines the other, more who makes the most of the other's mistakes. Finals can be too cautious, even boring events. But I believe neither of these teams will lack the courage to give it a lash, throw caution to the wind and believe in their style of play and its strength, and hopefully God will favour the brave.

Genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration. For me it's nothing to do with miracles, it's all to do with hard work, and in the 13 years of the Heineken Cup nobody has put in more hard work to get here than these two teams.

Toulouse are a team that can take risks, and take on new tactics and news ways of trying to beat a team. They can see who they are and who they want to be. The European Cup allows them to see a different version of themselves outside the French Championship. The rules of engagement are always different.

All the players on both sides would play this game for nothing, when it means proving their ability to themselves as individuals. And that's what it's all about. Winning, winning, winning. Performing as a player and as a team, and being the best you can be and proving that by holding the European Cup above your head and clutching a European Cup winners' medal in your hand. There's no bigger proof than that.

However, it's even hard to know where this game will be won or lost. Two players who have really stood out for Munster this season are the New Zealand centres, Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi. They would probably have been capped by Ireland by now. Toulouse will have to be very aggressive because these two are lethal.

They look as if they've been playing for Munster all their lives. They also look hungry. I don't know whether they're motivated by bitterness as well as pride, but, not having made it with the All Blacks, it's like they've been reborn as players.

They remind me of myself when I first came to Toulouse. You don't hear people talking as much about Doug Howlett, who is the superstar. They're as hard as nails, they're mixing it, they fight, they get their yellow cards, and you wonder are they also proving a point to people back home in New Zealand. I felt like I was proving a point every time I pulled on a Toulouse jersey to people back home because they weren't picking me.

A key selection for Toulouse is going to be the centre pairing, whether it's Florian Fritz or Maleli Kunavore, both just back from injury, to partner Yannick Jauzion.

But this game is probably going to be won up front. Your backs can do damn all unless your pack win the ball, and these are two very evenly matched packs. It's going to come down to which one is cuter on the day and whichever one wants it more. It's going to be a street fight for the first 40 minutes, and whichever pack starts to get an edge in the tight or wins the decisions after that will probably win.

I can't see there being anything in this game. Where Munster will have an advantage is in their "16th man". I don't know how they do it. It can make a difference.

Obviously we won't have the same kind of support there, but when it comes to passion and tradition, Toulouse will bring the same intensity, the same constant encouragement for each other to "Get up, get up, make another tackle". That's why Toulouse have been the best team in France for the last 20 years, and Munster possibly the same in Ireland.

I'll be there myself, travelling from Blagnac Airport at 8am on Saturday and flying back that night. I'll wear a shirt. I'll get enough slagging as it is, but I've no problem declaring who I'll be shouting for. I'm Irish but if you put Anthony Foley, Paul O'Connell or any Munster man in my shoes for the last six years, and then find they're playing Leinster in a final, you could only shout for Toulouse.

I'm still living in Toulouse and am now part of the coaching staff. I won't be shouting. I'll just sit there. As a player, in a watching brief, you try not to get too hyped up about a game. If the result goes the right way, I may show my emotions then, but it won't be until the final whistle.

Whatever happens, I think people will be talking about this final for years.

(In an interview with Gerry Thornley).