Sunday 8 January 2017 12:10, UK
Ronan O'Gara paid tribute to Munster in an emotional post-match interview after his former side beat Racing 92 in the Champions Cup.
The round one encounter was postponed in October following the tragic death of Munster coach Anthony Foley in Paris, with the rearranged fixture taking place on Saturday at Stade Yves-Du-Manoir.
Munster thrashed Racing 32-7, securing a bonus point as they went top of Pool 1 with two rounds remaining. O'Gara, who was a team-mate of Foley's at Munster, was emotional when speaking after the game.
"He'd be very proud of what has happened," O'Gara said of Munster, who turned their misfiring season around after Foley's death.
"It's so strange to think about him in the past tense, and I don't think I can have my head around that. It's very, very odd."
The former Ireland fly-half was scathing in his review of his side's performance in Paris, and does not hold any hope of reversing the result in round six if his side shows no improvement.
"The scary thing from our point of view is that we have to go to Thomond Park. That could be, on today's performance, beyond embarrassing," he said.
Munster loose forward CJ Stander paid tribute to the hard work of Foley and his fellow Munster coaches after the victory. While acknowledging that they have been riding that wave of emotion, Stander - who wears Foley's old No 8 jersey and who delivered another man-of-the-match performance in Paris - was quick to praise the work done behind the scenes by Foley and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus.
"We always keep this emotion in the back of our heads, but we've been working hard from pre-season onwards. We have good structures, Axel left a lot of what we're working on, how we want to play," said Stander.
"Our coaches, Rassie, Jacques (Nienaber), Fla (Jerry Flannery), Felix (Jones), have got good plans and we just want to go out on the pitch and play for them.
"From a team point of view, everyone worked very hard all week. We said we'd need work-rate and to stand up for each other in this match and honour the big man as we try to do every week.
"Coming back to Paris after his death, you talk about it, the emotion of it, and it catches you again. It's tough, you remember from last time, you get very emotional.
"You try to hide it, but it's into you and luckily everyone's in the same boat. I think we've been dealing with it quite well the last few weeks."
Hooker Niall Scannell's 56th-minute try sealed the bonus point for Munster, adding to first-half efforts from Simon Zebo, Stander and Andrew Conway which had established a 25-0 half-time lead.
The result sets up a mouth-watering round five showdown against PRO12 rivals Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun next Saturday. The second-placed Scots trail Erasmus' side by three pool points and will be hugely determined to avenge October's 38-0 thrashing at Thomond Park.
Munster captain Peter O'Mahony said: "It was a big win, it's up there but we're not going to get carried away. Anywhere in France, especially against a team as passionate and with as much history as Racing, you'd be very proud of the boys. It was quite a mature performance.
"But there's a lot of work to be done, especially with three big European games to play in as many weeks. We've to recover and then work hard to prepare for a side as good as Glasgow are."
