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Munster
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Munster Rugby is one of four provincial Rugby Union teams in the Republic of Ireland.
It was founded in 1879 and is based on the historic Irish province of Munster. Munster play most of their games at the 'fortress' Thomond Park in Limerick which has a capacity of 12,000. They also play in Musgrave Park in Cork where the capacity comes in at 8,000.
Club honours
Munster won the Celtic League in 2002/2003 after being beaten by 14 man Leinster in the final the year before.
Munster have won the Inter-provincial Championship 22 times.
Munster will always be considered the best side never to have won the Heineken Cup. They reached the Heineken Cup quarterfinals in 1998/99, after three years of not being able to get out of the group stages. This galvanised them to their first appearance in the competition's final in 1999/00, where they lost by one point to Northampton.
Their good form and bad luck continued in the following year with a semi-final defeat to Stade Français, again by one point, and was compounded by another defeat in the final in 2001/02 to Northampton.
In 2002/2003, they reached the quarter-finals after a momentous win against Gloucester.
They faced a tough test against Leicester at Welford Road and against all odds, defeated the reigning champions to progress to the semifinals.
They faced Toulouse in the semifinals and lost out on a place in the final after losing by a single point in France.
Last season it was more of the same. After and assured performance in the Pool stage they dispatched of Stade Français at Thomond Park to set up a semi-final date with English champions Wasps.
But they were again undone in the last four when a late surge by Wasps set up a Wasps v Toulouse final.
See also
Munster Rugby Players
External links
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