A LITTLE like Biarritz, you almost felt sorry for Toulouse, not least as they queued with the thousands in Cardiff and waited for their delayed flight home, and ditto many of their estimated 4,000 supporters who made the decidedly slow-paced coach, boat and coach journey home. Once again, a French side had been overcame by something far bigger than a mere rugby team.

They too had given their best shot, before ultimately being strangled into submission by an almost primeval force of nature; the sheer collective desire of Munster's team and supporters alike withstanding their best shots and then wearing them down.

Their sense of resignation and frustration was equally acute by the end. In a detailed analysis of the match, a relatively philosophical Guy Noves commented: "In the first 20 minutes we played very well and put them under a lot of pressure and were pretty much camped in their half. We were there in terms of physicality in the first half, but unfortunately we were not able to convert the first penalty, but thanks to our excellent defence we were able to score a drop goal.

"Obviously we know Munster are a team of great quality. Two years ago they were the European champions. Something they did very well was their pick and go, the pressure they applied there, the speed with which their defensive line pushed up and it's something which I greatly respect them for.

"They know how to play right to the limit of the rules and it enabled them, despite our strong defence, to get the first try. The disallowed try was a very, very close call and we should have taken advantage of the resulting scrum. The fact we didn't do that was really the turning point."

Noves also highlighted Jean-Baptiste Elissalde's first-half penalty miss and Fabien Pelous' yellow card as other turning points. He felt that after Cedric Heymans' magnificent creation of Yves Donguy's try Toulouse were in a position to win the game, "but Munster were far more physically present in the rucks. They got some great turnover ball and they were fantastic in the lineouts.

"Jean Bouilhou, who is normally very strong in the lineouts, struggled and those were really the reasons why Munster were able to close out the game."

However, the Toulouse camp in general and both Noves and Elissalde especially, were livid over referee Nigel Owens' performance. Elissalde went through a mini William Gallas post-match routine. He refused to exchange a handshake with his counterpart, Ronan O'Gara, and then wandered off for a lonely stampede in the in-goal area before coming to his senses, O'Gara revealing that they shook hands and exchanged jerseys later.

Noves vented his frustration over the appointment and performance of Owens by declaring: "I will say that the referee did referee in a certain way - particularly in the breakdown areas - and I do feel that Munster got an advantage from this, because they were refereed by the same referee in the semi-finals, the quarter-finals and the pool stages; something I've never seen before and they were able to play to his style of refereeing."

Yet, for all of this and those key moments, Noves conceded: "You have to accept that the opposition won the game and Munster deserved to win the game. Their ball retention was fantastic and they knew what they needed to do in order to beat us."

Pelous added: "We did play some good rugby today, although our finishing wasn't great. We weren't able to convert our play into good scores. We were well in the match for the first 20 minutes of the second half. Bizarrely we scored when we were down to 14 men and we were in it right until the very end but it was really Munster's capacity for ball retention and preventing us from playing which won the game."

As regards his yellow card, the Toulouse captain was suitably recalcitrant. "It's true that I did lose the head a little bit. The player did stamp on my foot and I reacted by kicking out at him. Unfortunately the referee only saw the second kick but it is a real shame that at my age (34) I reacted like that."