'The man on the street never experiences what these 23 men went through today' - Emotional Johan van Graan proud of Munster

In his four-and-a-half years at Munster Johann van Graan has always kept an even keel.

In victory, he has been consistently grounded, and in defeat he has always been stoic.

But with his final chance at winning a Heineken Champions Cup for Munster ended in the most dramatic of circumstances by Toulouse, the departing coach allowed himself a deserved moment to let his emotions show.

As he spoke to his team and saluted the remains of the 40,476 fans at the Aviva Stadium, he held back the tears, and after he and his squad gathered their thoughts in the changing room, he spoke to the media from the heart.

"I think... Firstly, I'm incredibly proud," he said, after a long pause while he gathered his thoughts.

"Today was what Munster rugby is about. To lose it like that, that's unfortunately sport, that's the way the rules are. Somebody's got to kick it over and somebody's got to miss.

"If ever there's a day to sum up Munster rugby, it's today. A community of 40,000 people travelling. It was certainly one of the best rugby games I've been involved with."

Their 4-2 defeat in the place-kicking competition was just the second ever in the 27-year history of the Champions Cup, falling 13 years on from it's first appearance between Leicester Tigers and Cardiff in 2009.

Munster and Toulouse ended up deadlocked after 100 minutes of gripping rugby, a 24-24 draw through 80 minutes before a scoreless extra time in which both sides saw dropgoal efforts drift wide.

And when it came down to the place-kicks, Toulouse held their nerve, with Antoine Dupont scoring twice, and Thomas Ramos and Romain Ntamack each scoring one, to send them through to a semi-final back at the Aviva next weekend.

It's the second year in a row the French side have beaten