Munster faced a mammoth task as they looked set to be denied a slot in the last eight on points difference, requiring a 27–point swing and at least four tries to snatch a spot in the quarter-finals from Gloucester Rugby who were progressing well in the English Premiership and had won four of their five European Cup matches.

The Irish province on the other hand had already been beaten on the road by Perpignan and Gloucester and only narrowly kept their qualification hopes alive with a 25-22 win over Viadana in Round 4.

“We beat Perpignan at Thomond Park and that got us back on track before two big wins over Viadana in the back-to-back games,” Quinlan said.

“They had done us a favour by beating Gloucester to put us in the driving seat but we got knocked back a bit in a pretty raucous crowd so there was a lot of doom and gloom and I think Alan Gaffney spoke about that before the Gloucester game.

“We were all but out really and we didn’t really know the exact permutations going into the game. We didn’t speak too much about it which sounds crazy. Our sole focus was to finish on a high and get our fourth win of the campaign.

“We had a lot of great leaders in the group. Ronan O’Gara was brilliant, Mick Galwey and Anthony Foley – guys like that. The real focus was just to get a performance and finish on a high.”

Quinlan also recalled the daunting task in Round 1 when they were swept aside by the Cherry and Whites at the Kingsholm.

“It was a strange campaign for us because we started off on the end of a pretty big beating from Gloucester in Round 1 at the Kingsholm,” he added. “They had a star-studded side and were favourites to win the Premiership.

“A lot of top international players and a very dominant side so we knew it would be a daunting task going there for the first game.

“It was disappointing and a bit of an eye opener for us given that we had made a fair bit of progress in the previous couple of years, having been beaten by Leicester in the final and our squad was improving. We were shell-shocked in the manner that we got beaten.”

You can watch all the ‘pre-match’ coverage from 17:15 (UK and Irish time) on our live blog, with the match stream getting underway at 17:45.

This match will be the first of many classic European matches to be shown on ChampionsCupRugby.com and our various social media feeds in the coming weeks and you can get the chance to decide who will be on show next weekend.

Former Munster Rugby back-row Alan Quinlan admitted that the focus was on a good performance and not any qualification permutations before the ‘Miracle Match’ against Gloucester in 2003.