Rise and fall: Munster and Toulon come full circle at Stade Felix Mayol

A must-win Champions Cup game at the Stade Mayol in January. Munster have been here before. The province will be hoping their second visit to Toulon is nothing like the first.

It's almost 13 years ago to the day since Munster's one and only trip to Toulon.

On that occasion, Tony McGahan's side were handed a resounding 32-16 beating by the French side, which ended their hopes of reaching the knockout stages with a game to play. Does that situation sound familiar?

If Munster fans have had an ominous feeling about this game, watching that January 2011 defeat back won't do much to help them feel any better.

At that point in time, Toulon were still a couple of years away from being the rugby version of Real Madrid's 'Galacticos' that they would go on to become, but they were on the right path.

Jonny Wilkinson, Felipe Contepomi, Juan Martin Fernandez-Lobbe and Joe van Niekerk were some of the foreign stars in the French side that day, with their infamous former president Mourad Boudjellal intent on making them the best side in the world.

Despite all that international talent, the most influential player that day was scrum-half Pierre Mignoni; Toulon born and bred.

The former France international was a 33-year-old veteran in his final playing season when the sides met 13 years ago.

It was his chip over the top that befuddled Doug Howlett and allowed Christian Loamanu to score their opening try, and it was his cutting run and offload that set up Paul Sackey to get the second, which effectively killed off the game before half time.

Early in the second half, Mignoni's scrap with Ronan O'Gara led to the Munster out-half being sent to the sin-bin. Like all wily scrum-halves, Mignoni had his say in the argument, and avoided any punishment.

Mig