O'Gara is the Munster hero as Toulouse are edged out in Heineken Cup Final

"I'm not taking no for an answer," the captain told his masterful goalkicking lieutenant, whose penalty had torpedoed Toulouse 15 minutes from the end to win the 'war' of the closest final for eight years. "So you'd better come forward."

As the searchlights dazzled down through the semi-darkness on Munster's victory jig, O'Gara dutifully stepped out of the ranks to help his captain lift the Heineken Cup towards the heavens amid a blaze of pyrotechnics - the signal for some 40,000 Irish fans to raise the roof strangely closed above the Millennium Stadium at the behest of the organisers.

Irish delight: Paul O'Connell (left) and Ronan O'Gara lift the Heineken Cup trophy after leading Munster to victory over Toulouse at the Millennium Stadium

They thought it would enhance the dramatic effect, as if Europe's two most consistent teams in pursuit of the glittering prize would not generate enough. For O'Gara, there will probably never, by his own admission, be anything to beat it.

"I couldn't believe it when Paul called me forward to pick up the cup. I felt overwhelmed by the selflessness of a gesture which speaks volumes of the man.

"Nothing can beat this, unless I captain Munster. But that isn't going to happen as long as Paul is around because he is the better man."

Munster's second winning final may not have been a classic in the mould of their first against Biarritz two years ago in the same stadium beside the Taff but it confirmed their graduation to a place alongside the three clubs - Leicester, Wasps and Toulouse - to have scaled rugby's Mont Blanc more than once.

"This was more satisfying than two years ago and that's saying something," said O'Gara. "We didn't know what winning was about in 2006. We do now."

Like the Leicester of old under Martin Johnson, they know exactly how to win. Munster are top of the heap again because they have developed pragmatism to a fine art and while they readily concede that there are times when it is anything but pretty, nothing could be more beautiful in the eyes of the legions from Tipperary, Cork, Limerick and other parts of the province.

The champions have done it the hard way, far from the comfort of Thomond Park, having been on the road since securing their place in the last eight in the New Year.

Let this be made clear from the outset. Munster won because they deserved to, which renders the French beefing about Welsh referee Nigel Owens irrelevant.

They won because of their mental capacity for keeping cool in the searing heat of combat, because of the unyielding will of their pack under O'Connell's generalship forcing repeated turnovers and because of the Iron Curtain they string out across the width of the pitch. And they also won because someone gave them a pinpoint kick up the backside.

Their second Cardiff triumph will go down in history as the definitive example of what happens when a team is given, as the French would say, a precise shot dans le derriere.

It came 11 minutes into the second half in the form of Fabien Pelous applying a size 12 boot to Alan Quinlan's rear end in retaliation for the Munster flanker stepping on his foot before the packs went down for a scrum.

Quinlan made the most of it, responding with a theatrical impression of what it means to be hopping mad. Touch judge Nigel Whitehouse advised Nigel Owens that it was a yellow card offence and the Welsh referee duly sent Pelous to the bin.

Toulouse saw red and their protest at Owens's action cost them another 10 metres and made O'Gara's penalty a lot less demanding. More dissent when the referee penalised Pelous upon his return for not rolling away at the tackle turned O'Gara's winning strike into a formality.

"The referee referees in a certain way around the breakdown area and Munster had an advantage in that regard," said Toulouse head coach Guy Noves.

"They have been refereed by the same referee five times in this competition - in the pool stage, at the quarter-final, semi-final and final. I have never seen this before. They were able to play to suit his style of refereeing. They knew what they had to do to beat us and they deserved to win."

After battering at their opponents' line during a dominant start, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde opted for a drop goal rather than keep the move going. Munster, never slow to detect a weakness in the opposition armoury, took that as a surprisingly early acknowledgement that it would take something extraordinary to score a try.

Denis Leamy, driven over by Quinlan and Donncha O'Callaghan, had scored Munster's from predictably close range before half-time and O'Gara had increased the lead to 13-6 when Cedric Heymans produced the extraordinary out of nothing, his sheer audacity and high-speed vision creating a try finished off by Yves Donguy.

Munster shrugged it off and got their noses back to the grindstone in a way that made O'Gara's winning penalty only a matter of time. They had the nous, the clued-up composure and the glue to protect the ball in the most bonecrunching contact to start running the clock down from seven minutes out without the remotest danger of being suckered into extra time.

Unlike O'Callaghan before the match and again immediately after it, Toulouse at that late stage never had a prayer.

MUNSTER: Hurley; Howlett, Tipoki, Mafi, Dowling; O'Gara, O'Leary; Horan, Flannery, Hayes; O'Callaghan, O'Connell, (capt); Quinlan, Leamy, Wallace. Substitutions: O'Driscoll (for O'Connell 58-60min), Buckley (for Horgan 64-74).
TOULOUSE: Heymans; Medard, Kunavore, Jauzion, Donguy; Elissalde, Kelleher; Human, Servat, Perugini; Pelous, (capt), Albacete; Bouilhou, Sowerby, Dusautoir. Substitutions: Nyanga (for Dusautoir 37), Poux (for Perugini 56), Lamboley (for Bouilhou 62), Millo-Chluski (for Albacete 62), Ahotaeiloa (for Donguy 72).
Booked: Pelous
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)