Munster were looking at a fight to maintain a challenge in the competition after just 24 minutes at the Stade Marcel-Michelin.

“We never make it easy for ourselves,” admitted Farrell. “We didn't start very well, but I think we showed incredible character to come away with the win in what is one of the hardest places to win in France.

“I know there were no crowds there, but it’s an incredibly intimidating place to be and they’re an incredibly good team as well.

“They’re one of the best teams in Europe for [a] long time and this season they’ve shown some good form as well so it’s a great result.

“We were really calm – that’s the one thing that stood out for me – no one was really panicking.

“Whenever we got together, whenever we had the chance to get together under the sticks when we had just conceded, our leaders just took control and talked about the process, talked about what we needed to do, got the messages from outside, and we stuck to the plan that we knew was good enough to beat them.”

No.8 CJ Stander was the man who punctuated one of the greatest comebacks in Champions Cup history when he went over with 10 minutes to go to wrestle the lead away from their French counterparts.

“That first quarter was very, very difficult. I think the first try is probably the quickest one in the competition – this year anyway,” said Stander.

“That put us under massive pressure – to come back from that is massive for this team. These guys train hard, there’s two guys with new caps, it's unbelievable.

“We went into half-time and just said to ourselves, look, we need to get out there and score more points and that’s what we did.”

Munster are one of four teams in Pool B who have earned two wins from two in the opening rounds but sit behind the other three undefeated teams after failing to pick up any bonus points – leaving them within striking distance of several teams with one victory – including Clermont who they face again in January.

Munster Rugby centre Chris Farrell has lauded his team’s resolve after they came back from a 28-9 deficit to defeat ASM Clermont Auvergne 39-31 in Round 2 of the Heineken Champions Cup.