Peter O’Mahony hailed a moment of magic from Andrew Conway as his try helped Munster beat three-time champions Toulon in the European Champions Cup quarter-finals.
Conway, who made his Ireland debut in the 2017 Championship against England, caught a clearance kick from François Trinh-Duc before running through the Toulon defence for a match-winning try.
Click here for the final standings in the 2018 NatWest 6 Nations
Munster are now through to the semi-finals against either Clermont or Racing 92 as they look to win their first European title since 2008.
And Ireland’s O’Mahony, in his first game since lifting the NatWest 6 Nations with Ireland, piled praise on the Munster back three at full-time.
“A lot of fellas would have been happy to let that ball go out and let the forwards go for a maul or set-piece play,” said captain O’Mahony.
“But that’s a piece of individual brilliance and we’re lucky enough to say we have these guys in our team.
“You’re trying to line yourself up to get back in position or hit the breakdown or something, but the potential some of the guys in our back three have – (Darren) Sweetnam, himself, (Simon) Zebo, Alex Wootton, I could keep rattling fellas off.
“They have incredible pace and they’re dangerous individuals when they get that kind of space and he showed a clean set of heels to get in under. It was a super try.
“It means a huge amount to us, a huge bulk of the team have grown up around here and Toulon are an incredible squad. It was a great challenge for us and 23 fellas put in a huge shift.’
Toulon fielded a host of French internationals for their trip to Ireland with the influential Mathieu Bastareaud captaining the side, as he did for Les Bleus in the final game of the NatWest 6 Nations against Wales, with Toulon suffering a similar fate as they went down by a single point.
He said: “We had the territory and the possession but we did not score points. If you don’t score tries, you cannot win. It is very frustrating for us.
“We have a lot of opportunities but there were too many errors with the ball and the details let us down. We know this Munster team is one with a special spirit and we saw that big heart today.”
