Munster’s long European love affair started 18 years ago at the Stade Chaban-Delmas and it is to Bordeaux they return on Sunday for another semi-final against a French club.
When they faced Toulouse in 2000 it was their first semi-final in the European Cup but they are now playing in a record 13th. Standing in their way are Racing 92, whose only previous appearance at this stage came in 2016, the year they lost to Saracens in the final.
“It was a new experience for all of us back in 2000,” says Ronan O’Gara, then the Munster fly-half who became Racing’s backs coach after retiring from playing, before this year joining the Crusaders in New Zealand. “It was bedlam at the airport that night. It was filled with thousands of red jerseys. Toulouse were expected to steamroller us but we hung in there.
“It is a difficult one for me this weekend: Munster gave me my opportunity and home is where the heart is but I have a lot of deep feelings for the guys in blue and white as well.”
One of those is the Ireland second-row Donnacha Ryan, who left Munster for Paris last summer not expecting to meet his former colleagues three times before the season was out. The sides played in the group stage, when both made home advantage tell, and Racing’s advantage of playing in France will be balanced by the 15,000 Munster supporters expected.
“I was at Munster for 13 years,” said Ryan, who was involved in three semi-finals with the province and was in the squad when they won the European Cup in 2008. “A difference in France is that rugby is just one part of your life and I have been able to explore avenues outside the game.
“It has gone well for me at Racing after I made a late start because of injury. I wanted to prove that Irish players are hard working and can perform at a high level. We know we are going to have to be at our best against Munster and manage the game well.”
Racing’s Dan Carter is approaching his final month with the club before the former All Blacks fly-half moves to Japan to end his career. His cameo as a second-half replacement at Clermont Auvergne in the quarter-final inspired the only away victory of the round and the 36-year-old is anxious to add to his haul of winner’s medals. “There is no better feeling in rugby than to win a trophy,” says Carter, who played in the 2015 World Cup final having missed out through injury four years before. “I want the younger guys in the team to experience that. I may not be playing the best rugby of my career but I still feel I have a lot to add.
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“I am in my last few weeks here but I am going to work harder than ever, not slacken off. The feeling I get playing rugby is like nothing else and I want it to last as long as possible because I am so lucky to have this job.”
Carter is the most celebrated player in the Racing squad but he does not take being a replacement as a slight. “An individual is nothing without the team,” he says. “I could be sitting here being annoyed about being on the bench but it’s not like that for me.
“It’s a new challenge. The game has changed so much that the replacements are sometimes just as important. My job is made a lot easier when the boys have battered them for 60 minutes. It’s about finding the best way to help the team and making the most of every opportunity I have now.”
The match is a clash of ways. Munster tend to grow their own, supplemented by a few outsiders while Racing do the opposite, locals scattered among high-profile imports. Both have shown they can dig deep, Munster at home to Toulon in the last round when willpower took them through and Racing the following day in Clermont when they also came from behind.