High on drama, low on romance - a new world

Alone it still stands. John Breen, the playwright who brought Munster's 1978 victory over the All Blacks to the stage last year, has no need to sharpen his quill for a sequel.

When Austin Healey plunged an imperious, impetuous boot into an advertisers hoarding in celebration of a sumptuous try, he was trampling underfoot Munster's hopes of finally reaching their European destination.

If it was a kick to the Irishmen's guts, as their second final in three seasons was slipping away from that moment, then it was one they could just about stomach.

What really churned the insides was not a boot, however, but a hand: that of Neil Back unaccountably not spotted steering a Munster put-in Leicester's way at the final scrum in the final minute.

Perhaps only a dramatist of Breen's calibre will ever be able to ink in the detail of what might have been, had Back – as he should have been – gone to the sin bin.

Munster were camped in the shadow of the Leicester posts and needed a converted try for victory. Leicester, having railed all afternoon at the referee's handling of the scrummage, were suddenly quietness itself, not that anyone could tell in the din of whistles from the Munster support.

Perhaps Back will come to be described as Irish rugby's version of Diego Maradona – a different kind of Hand of God. Yet the pages of history, where theatre has no place among the black and white, will record Leicester as the first side to retain the European Cup. They deserve to do so. Healey's lightning break passed his opposite number, Ronan O'Gara, to make it 12-9 to the English champions early in the second half, was a touch of magic. No less impressive was the Leicester fly half's cover tackle on John O'Neill to prevent a try later on.

No one man wins a final, nor a tournament and certainly not trophy after trophy as Leicester continue to do. But Healey's vision steered the Tigers home when they beat Stade Français in Paris in last year's final, and the 20,000 fans in red, green and white yesterday rose to the marvel from Merseyside once again.

With Roy Keane back on these shores, it was not a good day for another son of Cork to fail a test of bottle. But O'Gara, having motored Munster into pole position with some steady goal kicking, sadly suffered the jitters that plagued him when his side lost to Northampton in the final of 2000.

Declan Kidney, as befits a man named after an internal organ, likes to keep his feelings on the inside. But even the Munster coach, in the build-up to this match, admitted that "experience is something you gain when you don't get what you want''. Kidney, taking his last bow before moving to a job with Ireland, could only put another one down to experience.

As for O'Gara, perhaps some words from the American comedian George Burns would be more apt: "If at first you don't succeed – perhaps failure is your thing.''

But, no. Yesterday was the latest edition in the bangs-and-whistles, all-colourful European jamboree. What Kidney would have us believe – that for all the growing interest in rugby union in the open era, it remains a game for the players – holds true.

Back may have been vilified when the tens of thousands of Munster supporters reached the bottom of one glass too many last night. But while the ultimate prize remains beyond their reach, they and their counterparts from Leicester did their teams proud.

Why, you suspect that even Healey and the French match officials might still be assured of a warm welcome in Ireland when it all starts again next season.