The European champions left it very late to snatch a 23-13 victory from under the noses of the French team, scoring two tries in a four-minute spell to send the Top 14 club home without the consolation of a bonus point.

"That's probably the closest we've come to going out," O'Connell admitted, with Munster now back on track to qualify for the quarter-finals for the 11th successive year.

"Clermont are an excellent side. I thought they played excellently today and excellently last week. Maybe we let them play a little bit but they're a very good side.

"We're very happy to get out of there with a win. We knew they'd come out strong like they last week. They've some fabulous players but they also play with a lot of heart as well.

"You could see that today. They've a bit of both, very similar to ourselves. They play a very good game and they play with heart.

"We'd no doubt about today and how tough it was going to be. I wish it wouldn't have been as tight as that but we're delighted to get the win."

Munster were denied possession for long stretches of the game as Clermont stretched the home side's defensive capabilities to the limit, especially in the second half.

"We found it hard to get territory and we found it hard to get our hands on the ball,” O’Connell added. “I don't know how many lineouts we had in the second half - we didn't seem to have that many.

"Then when we did have possession, we made a few little errors. The ball was so precious in the second half, we didn't want to be letting that happen.

“We needed to hold on to the ball, make them defend a little bit like they were doing to us but unfortunately we didn't do that."