But somehow . . . we're not sure how . . . the Munster players and management have to shield themselves from the talk and focus on what they need to do on the day. All the superfluous factors, as we'll get to later, will matter but not as much as the game itself which promises to be fascinating in its own right. It may not prove to be a pretty game, in fact you can be damn sure for the most part that it won't, but it's just as interesting a match-up as the Munster and Leinster semi-final was three weekends ago. Without the polar opposite stereotypes to work with, that is.

Figuring out this game isn't as easy on the mind, mainly because of the difficulty of pinning down Biarritz's true worth. Blessed with extraordinary individual talent in the shape of Imanol Harinordoquy, Serge Betsen, Petru Balan, Dimitri Yachvili, Damien Traille, Nicolas Brusque and Sereli Bobo, they often appear to be less than the sum of their parts out on the park, particularly in the Heineken Cup. Particularly in the knockout stages. We saw against Sale and Bath in the quarter and semi-final respectively that the Basque outfit . . . with the help of the best defensive operation in European rugby . . . did just enough to eek out a victory on each occasion, and it didn't seem to worry them one bit.

They've been heavily criticised for their tactics by media pundits across the continent but that's the way they like to do business.

Their number eight, Thomas Lievremont, stated last week that he was well aware that his side's attacking promise wasn't anywhere near fulfilled in either of those two games but that things would change for the final. "If we want to beat Munster, there's no way we can play the same way as against Bath and Sale, " said the side's captain. "We have to offer a lot more, we have to be more ambitious and if we are limited and up tight, we won't win."

But you shouldn't believe him.

It's poppycock. Biarritz will continue to play cup rugby on Saturday, firstly, because they're good at it and secondly, because in a knockout competition like the Heineken Cup, all you need to do is win, nothing else matters whatsoever, not the number of tries you've scored, not how well you've played, not if you've managed to entertain the crowd. Nothing matters but winning.

Taking it as read that Biarritz will play the way they have in the knock-out stages thus far, it's up to Munster to be cute enough to counteract that and if there's one thing the province do well, it's being clever on the park. Biarritz, in Europe at least, like to play the game without the ball and attempt to force the opposition into making mistakes before jumping on them.

Munster, therefore, won't be afraid to allow Biarritz to have the ball in certain areas and see if they're capable of doing anything constructive with it. The boot of Ronan O'Gara is going to be crucial.

The out-half is going to target the talented if bulky Biarritz wing pairing of Sereli Bobo and Jean-Baptiste Gobelet and see whether they can cope with, first of all, being turned, and then, clearing effectively. Both wingers have shown recently that they're not the brightest in the kicking department and any sloppiness will give Munster the territory to play the fast-rucking, fast-paced game they like to put into action in big fixtures. But for all this to happen, O'Gara's kicking game is going to have to be right on the money, while the likes of Shaun Payne, Anthony Horgan and Ian Dowling will have to be alert in case Nicolas Brusque, the one member of the Biarritz back three who can kick, does get his mitts on the ball.

Not that Munster can do that all day. They're going to have to vary their game throughout and that's where their ball carriers . . . principally Paul O'Connell, David Wallace and Denis Leamy . . .

are going to come into the equation. They need huge games from these three in particular, and Trevor Halstead you'd imagine, if they're to work themselves into position for O'Gara to pepper the corners, or for their outside backs, whatever their composition, to do some damage out wide.

And after the tactics, there's the emotional stuff. In an ideal world it would be easy to say that things like that shouldn't affect players, but they can and do. Especially with this Munster odyssey. There's been so much emotional investment put into winning this trophy that it would be churlish to dismiss Munster's desire going into this one. Guys like John Kelly, Anthony Horgan, Peter Stringer, Ronan O'Gara, David Wallace, Anthony Foley, Marcus Horan and John Hayes have been around the squad for two losing Heineken Cup finals and that has to matter on Saturday.

The kindest thing you can say about Munster's two previous failures at the final hurdle is that they didn't do themselves any kind of justice on decision day. Against Northampton back in 2000, they never quite got into the game, although they still could have won it with a tiny bit of luck. Then against Leicester in 2000 they kept themselves in the game through sheer doggedness, but in the end they didn't have enough ideas out wide to break down the Tigers. On Saturday you have to hope they play at a level something close to what they achieved against Sale and Leinster this season. Both games were vintage Munster.

The worry you'd have heading into this one, though, is that Munster's injury problems have disrupted their preparations. It must be difficult to practice things like back-line moves if you're not certain who's going to play at 13 and likewise, the line-out operation can hardly be expected to go smoothly on the day when at least three of your first-choice pack still haven't trained properly a full week before the game. In saying that, this Munster team know each other inside out but it may take them a while to get into their proper groove on Saturday.

As for last season's quarterfinal meeting between the two sides, it will have a bearing on Saturday's final. The attitude shown by Munster that day was baffling and completely untypical. For some strange reason they actually appeared to believe that they hadn't a hope of beating Biarritz on their home patch. It was only as the second-half played itself out that the players on the pitch actually believed they could win the game. By then it was too late. As we've said, Biarritz add up to something less than the sum of their parts, something neither Sale nor Bath appeared to realise this season. But make no mistake about it, Munster know.

Their time is now. A big performance and they can seize their day.