2006 Heineken Cup Final

2006 Heineken Cup Final

Event	2005–06 Heineken Cup
Munster Biarritz 23 19
Date	20 May 2006
Venue	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Referee	Chris White (England)
Attendance	74,534

The 2006 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 2005–06 Heineken Cup, the 11th season of Europe's top club rugby union competition. The match was played on 20 May 2006 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The match was contested by Biarritz of France and Munster of Ireland. Munster won the match 23–19.

Munster were appearing in their third final after defeats in 2000 and 2002.

Over two-thirds of the 75,000 crowd were supporting Munster in Cardiff, while 15,000 fans watched the match live on a big screen on O'Connell Street in Limerick with an estimated 40,000 turning out for the victorious homecoming in Limerick on 21 May. The scenes from O'Connell Street in Limerick were shown live at pivotal points in the game on large video screens inside the Millennium Stadium, which Biarritz believed to have given Munster an unfair advantage.

Summary

Sereli Bobo scored a controversial early try for Biarritz after two minutes, touching down in the left corner with his foot appearing to have been in touch as he ran in to score. Ronan O'Gara narrowed the gap with a seventh-minute penalty before Trevor Halstead powered over from close range on the left side of the pitch to get Munster's opening try after 17 minutes. Dimitri Yachvili then levelled the scores with a 22nd-minute penalty. After 31 minutes, with the score level at 10–10, Munster got their second try of the game when Peter Stringer saw that opposite number Yachvili was out of position and rounded the blindside of the scrum on the right and ran untouched to go over and score in the right corner. O'Gara's conversion put Munster 17–10 ahead before half-time and a second penalty from O'Gara just after the interval put them further ahead. Three penalties from Yachvili narrowed the gap to just one point with 10 minutes to go before O'Gara scored another penalty for Munster in the 73rd minute and they held out to win by four points.

Match details

20 May 2006 15:00 BST

Biarritz	19–23	Munster
Try: Bobo 2' c Con: Yachvili Pen: Yachvili (4) 22', 48', 51', 70'	Report	Try: Halstead 17' c Stringer 31' c Con: O'Gara (2) Pen: O'Gara (3) 7', 42', 73'

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 74,534 Referee: Chris White (England)

FB 15 Nicolas Brusque RW 14 Jean-Baptiste Gobelet OC 13 Philippe Bidabé IC 12 Damien Traille LW 11 Sireli Bobo FH 10 Julien Peyrelongue SH 9 Dimitri Yachvili N8 8 Thomas Lièvremont (c) OF 7 Imanol Harinordoquy BF 6 Serge Betsen RL 5 David Couzinet LL 4 Jérôme Thion TP 3 Census Johnston HK 2 Benoît August LP 1 Petru Bălan Replacements: HK 16 Benjamin Noirot PR 17 Benoît Lecouls N8 18 Olivier Olibeau FL 19 Thierry Dusautoir SH 20 Manuel Carizza FH 21 Julien Dupuy CE 22 Federico Martín Aramburú Coach: Patrice Lagisquet

FB 15 Shaun Payne RW 14 Anthony Horgan OC 13 John Kelly IC 12 Trevor Halstead LW 11 Ian Dowling FH 10 Ronan O'Gara SH 9 Peter Stringer N8 8 Anthony Foley (c) OF 7 David Wallace BF 6 Denis Leamy RL 5 Paul O'Connell LL 4 Donncha O'Callaghan TP 3 John Hayes HK 2 Jerry Flannery LP 1 Marcus Horan Replacements: HK 16 Denis Fogarty PR 17 Federico Pucciariello PR 18 Mick O'Driscoll LK 19 Alan Quinlan BR 20 Tomas O'Leary SH 21 Jeremy Manning FH 22 Rob Henderson Coach: Declan Kidney

See also

• 2005–06 Heineken Cup