Right, well, mentioning the Munster support as a bit vital is like saying Theo Walcott's a bit of a risk for England.

They've been making their way to Cardiff in numbers, serious numbers, and in all sorts of transport. "70,000 of them here, " says Hook. Cars, planes, boats are mentioned. "They've been coming in yachts and trawlers, " adds Brent Pope. Tractors are mentioned by a fan on Sky . . . we're unsure quite when you'd have had to leave Limerick on tractor to get to Cardiff, but reckon there's a David Lynch movie in there somewhere. Some fans of course hitched a ride on Paul O'Connell's cape.

Conor O'Shea says he was talking to a Biarritz fan who had only seen 12 French supporters so far. Nobody in any studio is underestimating the impact the hordes (shouldn't Munster fans have their own plural grouping at this stage? ) can have on the game. The 16th man is given as the official reason why Munster will win by Popey.

Hook, of course, spends the hour giving what seems like at least, oh, 70,000 reasons why Biarritz will win. The famed Munster passion is dismissed.

"These guys are Basques, a people who've been around since before the Celts, the Normans, Atilla the Hun. You think they don't have passion? People are saying Munster are looking to the four-leaf clover and the rosary beaf" Which is when Popey interrupts with his second "rubbish!" of the day. And it's only 2.30. George gives Popey a slightly condescending pat on the thigh and tells him he's doing a good job for the Munster cause. Popey looks like a kid who's just got a lollipop from his favourite teacher.

So time for predictions. Sky go four for four with the Munster men. RTE, in their own unmistakeable, anti-Ian Wright-analytical kind of way go two to one for Biarritz. O'Shea plumps unconivincingly for the French guys ("everything in me says to go for Munster butf"); Popey says the same but actually listens to the voices inside.

Which is more than George does as he exclaims "the better team wins these games, and that's Biarritz." Right, that's that settled. Munster fans breath sighs of relief everywhere, even the ones on tractors.

To the game. Biarritz of course go about spoiling the biggest Munster raving party after all of two minutes with a try. The dozen Biarritz fans go crazy.

Ryle Nugent decides to question the touch judge's sexuality as some sort of revenge . . . "I don't know if Dave Pearson was looking at Bobo's backside or his feet there" . . . but Ryle and Ralph are fairly positive it was a bad call. No worries. Not too long later Ryle gets to do that gutteral "ohhh" that manages to get across exactly what everyone else is feeling without using any actual words. Trevor Halstead goes over, and Ralph Keyes gets to make that little comment about the roof being lifted we know he was just waiting for. The 'Fields of Athenry' gets its first official airing at 18:43 on the clock. When little Stringer sneaks around the scrum so that nobody actually sees him until he's over the line a while later we get the old classic "you beauty, you absolute beauty." Couldn't have put it better ourselves in fairness.

Half-time and it's fair to say that Popey's lording it. George Hook has a rather perplexed look on his face . . . kinda how Ronaldinho must have looked when he heard Thierry Henry was staying at Arsenal. "It just doesn't make sense, " he pleads. "Munster shouldn't be dominating up front but they are." Popey knows the answer but he's keeping it to himself. "I just can't see Biarritz getting back into this now, " Conor O'Shea pipes up. Tom McGurk manages to paint a picture of Serge Betsen going to bed in his nightie with a teddy having nightmares about the Peter Stringer try.

Hmm.

The second-half plays out like some sort of torture, managing to make the 40 minutes seem as long as Eurovision night. And Ryle and Ralph's voices descend (or ascend) into pitches of real pressure. We get lots of "Oohs" and "Ahhs" from Ryle and Ralph which makes the phrase "this is tense" seem wonderfully articulate. And in the last few minutes, as 70,000 people rose to their feet in sheer emotion, Ryle could just about be heard over the noise saying, "This is special, this is so so special."

Well you sensed that was that. "Glory, glory Munster" we got as the whistle went. That sums it up nicely.