For most 22-year-old students, going to the pub with their Mum after seeing their team lose in agonising circumstances would be hell. But barring the last minute of the match, Monday night turned out to be quite fantastic.

Some of the travelling support

Mama Leipziger and I took the (worse than British) train from Dublin to Limerick in the morning and arrived at Thomond Park at 6pm to discover that the kick-off had been brought forward to 7pm instead of 7.30. Standing just behind the away bench we found a group of Falcons including our own JJ, Pod and Mark H, watching the boys warm up. Monkey arrived at half time.

Our Falcons began the match with a strong side including Jonny Wilkinson, Stuart Grimes and Colin Charvis, while Munster fielded Paul Burke and Christian Cullen, but were missing a lot of top players such as half-backs Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer.

The legend that is Christian Cullen

Almost as soon as the match began we were on the attack and from a scrum Wilkinson slipped a pass to Mark Mayerhofler who cut through the home defence for the opening score. Wilkinson’s conversion gave us a 0-7 lead, but a Burke penalty quickly cut our advantage.

From such scrums do Mayerhofler tries appear...

Any ideas that this match was a mere "friendly" were ended during the first period as Epi Taione was guilty of a couple of high tackles, and received boos from the red fans. However, having survived a carding from the Irish referee, our big Tongan was almost decapitated himself near half time! By the interval our lead had been further cut to 6-7 thanks to another Burke penalty, but we were playing well in a very exciting match.

Sofa Setiti about to get smacked in the face

It looked promising...

Newcastle began the second half with numerous new players, such as Ed Williamson, David Walder, Micky Ward, Mark Wilkinson and Andy Buist, and during the course of the second half Hall Charlton, Matt Thompson and Matthew Tait also arrived. Jonny kicked a penalty of his own for 6-10, but only lasted an hour before being withdrawn.

Munster, backed by a now vociferous home crowd, which I think we did manage to match, began to take control of the game and relentlessly attack our line. One run down the left wing was only stopped by a superb tackle by Joe Shaw in the corner, and it looked like we could hold on for a fantastic victory. Certainly, we were shouting as loud and were as stressed as if this were a Heineken Cup match. In injury time however, Munster won scrum after scrum before Maurice Lawler eventually found a way through. Converting his own try, he gave the hosts a 13-10 victory.

The lineout looked good all night

Despite this being a friendly, Munster are one of rugby’s biggest clubs and this would have been an excellent win, but disappointingly it wasn’t to be.

Little Monkey, Monkey1, Leipziger and Mark H

Never mind, we Falcons split up to make our way to Peter Clohessy’s Sin Bin Bar on the banks of the River Shannon, with me, Mama Leipziger and the Monkeys eventually arriving at 9.30pm having asked for directions five times and getting a different answer to each enquiry! Phil Dowson, Tom May and Epi Taione came later on, Epi heading straight for a quick chat with us, and Phil being really friendly, introducing himself to me at the bar. For the short while before I left, these three really seemed to enjoy mingling with fans, which is fantastic.

Positives: Matthew Tait’s strength and speed above his weight, Jonny Wilkinson’s tackling with no ill-effects and his excellent tactical kicking, and the scrum and lineout also seemed a lot stronger, with Charvis running the forwards well.

Negatives: Losing again at the death.

Fans: I counted around 20 of us Falcons, and in my opinion we out shouted the reds. Special mention must go to Wayne, in Limerick on his own having cycled from Galway since last Tuesday, yet not looking tired at all. If you’re reading this - respect!

Munster - C Cullen, S Payne (M McPhail 60), J Storey (B Tuohy 70), R Henderson (M Mullins 40), A Horgan (M Lawler 52 - 1T 1C), P Burke 2P, M Prendergast (E Reddon 60), G McIlwham, J Flannery (J Blaney 45), M Storey (E McGovern 70), D Ryan (S O’Connor 55), T Hogan, S Peogh, D Leamy, J Williams (J O’Connor 60).

Newcastle - J Shaw (D Walder 40), E Taione, J Noon (M Tait 60), M Mayerhofler 1T (M Wilkinson 32), M Stephenson, J Wilkinson 1C 1P (J Shaw 60), J Grindal (H Charlton 60), I Peel, A Long (M Thompson 60), M Hurter (M Ward), S Grimes, C Hamilton (A Buist 32), M McCarthy, P Dowson (E Williamson 40), C Charvis.

Other subs used: S Setiti, O Phillips, G Parling, J Isaacson, E Kalman.

Referee - David Keane

Attendance - 7,000 (of which approximately 20 away fans that I could see)

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