Rugby: Typical. Munster go and steal Leinster's thunder again. With a hard-as-nails performance drawn from page one of the Munster manual, they dethroned Leicester in Welford Road with a stunning, comprehensive and utterly deserved 20-7 win and so denied them a tilt at a third Heineken European Cup crown in a row.
The semi-finals will for the first time feature two Irish sides and an all-Irish/French carve-up. Lovely.
We keep saying it but it's true, on a theatrical occasion that was just pure rugby, this was as good as it gets and ranks right up there with other away day escapades against Toulouse, Saracens, Stade Français and Castres. Given the opposition, with one defeat in 60 home games domestically, it was possibly the best.
The atmosphere crackled like bacon on a griddle, reinforcing the truth that a crammed, small ground is way better than a subdued big one. Over half of the Munster fans were congregated behind the goal Leicester kicked off toward, providing a sea of red.
Rock anthems pounded through the air, and the decibel levels seemed to rise whenever the Red Army launched into The Fields of Athenry.
Yet for every penalty kick you could hear the proverbial pin drop. This was a rugby occasion, as red raw as an abattoir, but a pure rugby event nonetheless. And, by the end, Munster team and Red Army alike had simply taken over the joint.
And so the odyssey continues. Their "reward" is a semi-final against Toulouse in the 36,000- capacity Stadium de Toulouse on Saturday, April 26th (kick-off 3.0 local time), for which the Red Army might reasonably expect to get a 13-14,000 split of the tickets with the home side after the ERC and sponsors have taken their cut. It won't be nearly enough.
The next day, Sunday week, Leinster will play host to Perpignan in Lansdowne Road (kick-off 2.45).
For Munster then, déjà vu, as they memorably overcame Toulouse, the crack French outfit oft likened to the Real Madrid of European rugby, 31-25 in the Bordeaux semi-final three seasons ago. (They really are too good to us.)
"If we're going to do it, then we're going to have to do it the hard way," remarked Anthony Foley phlegmatically. "We resigned ourselves to that a long-time ago."
Munster's most capped player in Europe, making his 51st appearance in the Cup, put this latest sleeves-rolled-up effort in a nutshell.
"We didn't take a backward step all day, that was the decisive thing and the most pleasing thing. A couple of years ago we played them in a friendly and stood off them too much. We learnt a lot from past encounters with them."
They also learned much from watching Sale lose here last weekend.
"That was how not to play them. It was just drilled into us all week how tough and how aggressive this side (Leicester) are, and how tough they are at the breakdown," said man-of-the-match and captain Jim Williams. "I think we trained that way and got it into the mental side of things that we had to be just as aggressive."
To a large part, Leicester's game is about pure intimidation, with a little garnish thrown in by Austin Healey and Geordan Murphy. Physically, it was a huge effort, but mentally it was just as big. Stand Up and Fight alright.
The young toreadors, Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell, threatened to overstep the mark, but they put their opposing Lions legends to the sword, and, with the help of Alan Quinlan and the lifters, contrived to steal nine of Leicester's 24 throws.
When Ben Kay was spoken to for a late charge on Rob Henderson six minutes into the second-half, it merely reminded us that one of the Leicester hardmen was on the pitch. Hadn't seen him.
It was violent stuff, as it was always going to be. In the Tigers' lair it was the law of the jungle. When Will Johnson was carried off, Leicester exacted retribution on the apparent perpetrator, Paul O'Connell, at a subsequent ruck and he was groggily taken off in turn.
One can only imagine the type of intimidation, both verbal and, to the unseeing eye, physical, but there's only one way to play Leicester and that's to go toe to toe and tooth to tooth with them.
"That's the mark of a very good side. We told the boys to try and keep the mouths shut," said Williams, playing it down.
Heroes abounded up front: Williams was all muscular intent on the gain line, Quinlan had another magnificent game. All the pack really, they'll have been hurting long before the end.
Behind them Ronan O'Gara overcame tricky kicking conditions to come good as the match-winner.
Fleetingly behind on the hour at 7-6, when Geordan Murphy set up Steve Booth for a try, Munster responded with a brace of tries from their half-backs, and once Peter Stringer completed a stirring move, in which O'Gara, Henderson, Mike Mullins and Quinlan all brilliantly kept the 60-metre setpiece move alive to score Munster's second try and make it 20-7, it was clear who the bosses of this game were.
Long before the end, you had that warm glow inside that comes with knowing that Munster were going to do it.
You were reminded, too, that nobody beats Munster twice. The thought also occurred that more of this might have been the way to play England a fortnight ago.
Deep down, too, you knew that Munster would be looking across at the half of the draw and saying to themselves that they'd be damned if they let their countrymen get to the Holy Grail before them. For a team that feeds voraciously on these types of things, it's definitely another spur. The Tigers vanquished, "tell the Lions we're on our way", was a popular shout.
There was only The Fields of Athenry by the end of the afternoon. A tad discourteously, the Welford Road p.a. system belted out any old pap as Mick Galwey and Peter Stringer were chaired high off the pitch. But the thousands stayed until they had the last song. Truly, the castle had been stormed, and then Big Jim led his men back out to milk one more rocking rendition. Then the more appropriate anthem. Stand Up and Fight.
Jeez, imagine if they won the thing?
Match report, reaction:
Page 3
Toulouse v Munster
Saturday, April 26th, La Stadium de Toulouse, 2.0
Leinster Lions v Perpignan
Sunday, April 27th, Lansdowne Road, 2.45
