A final prayer - Donncha is pleading for Munster to join the greats

Donncha (pronounced 'Dun-aca') O'Callaghan, the 6ft 6in Irish Lion renowned for his elaborate pre-match rituals, asked for some assistance from above in beating Biarritz at the Millennium Stadium two years ago before his native province finally conquered Europe.

Tower of strength: O¿Callaghan hopes divine inspiration will bring Toulouse to their knees

This followed the heartache of losing three semi-finals and two finals in five successive seasons.

Now, at the same venue, he will ask for a little more to help Munster recapture the Heineken Cup at the expense of the only team to win it three times, Toulouse.

"My one thought before the last final was: 'Please, just let us win this game','" he recalled. "I hate asking for stuff and I felt terrible about it afterwards, but I had to do it. Straight away after the match, I rushed back to the dressing-room to say another prayer of thanks.

"I felt guilty about asking when there are people all over the world with so many real problems and there I was taking up time about a game of rugby.

"I'm not hugely religious but I will definitely pray before this game. It will be to give thanks for being in the same team with all these talented people who probably deserve to be in there more than me and pray that every one of us comes back safely. I hope that won't be asking for too much."

Clad in unfamilar dark blue after losing the toss to avoid a clash of red, Munster know they cannot be considered truly great until they win the trophy more than once, a feat managed only by Leicester, Wasps and, of course, Toulouse.

Back in January, facing possible elimination against French league leaders Clermont-Auvergne, coach Declan Kidney galvanised his troops into snatching the priceless losing bonus point which proved their salvation.

"We were sitting around before the match and Declan says: 'Have a good look round the dressing-room. Some guys here have won one European medal. Are you happy with that? Is that enough for you? What do you think?' It was a good point.

"For the talent in this squad, one winning final is definitely not enough. Maybe people can say we have under-achieved in previous finals - the Northampton match in 2000, the Leicester one in 2002 - and they'd have a point. But we learned from those experiences and they helped make us the team we are.

"We have lost enough finals. I hate to lose more than I like to win. That's a quote from someone but it's so true. It's like a grieving process. You are in a hole for days. You can't look your team-mates in the eyes and then you have to wait so long for the chance to redeem what you've lost.

"You have to understand that with Munster, the jersey is never your own. If you are lucky, it is entrusted to you for a while and you try to make sure that when you give it back it is in as good a condition as when you got it.

"Munster fans are different. They like good scrums and mauls. Running the ball out from behind your own posts wouldn't get as much applause as a maul from 10 metres out. They feed off the players giving everything.

"I'm a big Roy Keane fan.He spoke to us once and I felt embarrassed because a couple of the foreign lads in the team didn't appreciate who he was. They were playing monopoly and you'd be thinking: 'What the hell are you at?' It's great to have somone locally who is such a high-achiever. He's changed the Irish sporting mentality, which used to be about giving it a lash and being modest losers. Why isn't it OK to win? Why should Irish people look to under-achieve?"

A Cork man from tip to toe, whose three older brothers played the game after hurling ('the O'Callaghan boys were a bit rough and it wasn't the best idea to give them sticks'), his cousin, George, plays football for Ipswich Town.

O'Callaghan was a Test Lion in New Zealand three years ago and his second row partnership with Paul O'Connell puts the real horsepower into the Munster engine. His painstaking pre-match routine amuses O'Connell, who says: "He has so many superstitions before a match, it's unbelievable. For a start, he has to put a towel down on the dressing-room floor and he can't touch the ground with his bare feet.

"Then he puts on a pair of brand new white socks under his match socks. He has to wear the same gear for line-out practice on the morning of the match and so on."

No one can contend with divine intervention, but today's final boils down to the simple question of whether Toulouse, under the autocratic Guy Noves, have the wit to break Munster's iron curtain defence, which did for Gloucester in the quarter-finals.

There might be not quite as many penalties as Moscow on Wednesday night but this one, too, could be close enough to run to extra-time. I take Munster to win by the shortest of heads.