IRISH RUGBY is alive and throbbing again, and once more the debt to the mighty men of Munster is immense. In the aftermath of Saturday's 16-3 Heineken European Cup quarter-final win in Gloucester, Declan Kidney encouraged us all to enjoy the moment, and everyone assuredly did, but sport also being sport thoughts have progressed rapidly to the semi-final in three weeks' time.

And somehow you sensed the fates decreed it would be their former coach Alan Gaffney and Saracens lying in wait.

Sure enough, Saracens utilised home advantage yesterday to turn around a 30-3 EDF Anglo-Welsh Cup semi-final defeat in Cardiff two weeks ago and beat the high-flying and overconfident Ospreys 19-10 in Vicarage Road yesterday.

The semi-final, Munster's seventh in nine years, will be played three weeks hence, at Coventry's Ricoh Arena (capacity 32,000), on Sunday, April 27th.

The day before that, London Irish will "host" Toulouse, the tournament's only three-time winners, and their non-travelling supporters at Twickenham after Guy Noves's aristocrats eventually put Cardiff to the sword by 41-17 to reach their eighth semi-final.

The good folk of the ERC get many things right, but one ventures the venues are the wrong way around.

In any event, Cardiff may be about to contest their first FA Cup final since 1927 at Wembley, but there will be no Welsh side in the European Cup final in Cardiff on May 24th. Instead, two English sides stand in the way of the two heavyweights meeting for the first time in the decider.

Gaffney spent three years at Munster prior to Kidney's current stint, twice taking them to the semi-finals, and he now takes Saracens to this point for the first time.

"Munster were superb in the way they won at Gloucester," he said. "They really did dominate the game. I sent a number of congratulatory text messages to my Munster friends . . . and I got a flood of them in return after the final whistle against the Ospreys."

They will be without their England centre Andy Farrell, who suffered shoulder damage that is likely to sideline him for three months.

Playing Saracens, whom Munster beat 35-34 and 31-30 en route to the 2000 final, in Coventry would seem preferable to the Ospreys in Cardiff, though on Saturday evening Kidney ventured: "Alan's a brilliant coach, and he would know us inside out."

In every call, Kidney reaped a dividend, be it bravely picking Tomás O'Leary, Denis Hurley and Ian Dowling or bringing on Federico Pucciariello 33 minutes into the game with the Munster scrum in grave danger of conceding a seven-pointer, for as Nigel Owens showed in Paris, he is not shy about running in under the sticks.

"Maybe we would have won by more if I had picked him (Stringer)," said Kidney. "Who's to say? Just because we won today doesn't mean the selections were right. It's never easy to make them; you don't enjoy them . . . I'm obviously delighted for the lads who played. It didn't surprise me.

"We don't make it an easy team to get on. The younger fellas can get a little bit frustrated, but once they're good enough they'll get their go."

Even foot soldiers in the Red Army conceded the Kingsholm atmosphere was akin to Thomond Park. They were also struck by the hosts' generosity of spirit, as evidenced by the reaction of the Gloucester coach Dean Ryan.

"A number of small margins were always going to decide a game like this one, and you have got to give Munster credit," said Ryan, playing down Chris Paterson's three penalty misses in the first half. "We had to play the game slightly differently - we had to be prepared to do that - but I believe we are heading in the right direction. It didn't happen for us against a very good side who, defensively, were outstanding."

Typically, the Shed throbbed from long before kick-off and the atmosphere fairly crackled thereafter, with a constant hum of noise or singing. Aside from the many outside, the Red Army contingent looked, sounded and felt like a good deal more than their official allocation of 4,000.

"I think the expectations of supporters is something that makes us perform," said Paul O'Connell. "It makes it a tough, pressure-filled week before these games but it's something that does make us perform. It's good for us.

"They pay their money to support the team and to perform a role for the team; they don't pay their money to be entertained. That's an important thing about the Munster supporters."

Gutsy, concentrated and intelligent display though it was, Donncha O'Callaghan for one maintained, "It wasn't great; we are going to have to improve on certain areas. Our scrum was poor, like Perpignan a few years ago, but it was cup-final stuff.

"That was what it was all about, getting through to the next round, that's all we give a damn about. But in terms of playing our patterns, we didn't play them as well as we could have. We did play winning rugby, but looking towards the next level our performances would have to be lifted."

Concluding they "were just smarter in key areas", O'Callaghan pointed to the involvement of O'Leary and Hurley and drew comparisons with how Jerry Flannery, Dowling and Barry Murphy broke into the team en route to the cup triumph of 2006.

There was a notable willingness all round to encourage or congratulate the newer kids on the block.

"You just want to show you're all together," said O'Callaghan. "Sometimes that can be all fake - fellas running 10 metres to pat some fella on the back - but not here." No, not here.