Provinces won't meet - unless they get to Paris

RUGBY:LEINSTER AND Munster have been kept apart in the Heineken Cup semi-final draw, but each will have to take the scenic route to the final. If either Irish side negotiates tough-looking quarter-finals at home to Clermont Auvergne and Northampton, respectively, on the second weekend in April, they will then be away in the semi-finals.

Leinster would be in France, where they would face the winners of the Toulouse-Stade Francais quarter-final, while Munster would play the winners of the Biarritz-Ospreys tie on either May 1st or 2nd.

One bookmaker installed Toulouse as the 11 to 4 favourites, just ahead of Munster and Leinster, while quoting odds of 11 to 2 on it being a first all-Irish final in Paris on Saturday, May 22nd.

“First up for us is Clermont,” said Leinster captain Leo Cullen. “If we can get past them then we will start looking at the challenge of facing either Toulouse or Stade Français Paris.

“The quality of the teams left in the Heineken Cup is just unbelievable and this season the French teams have really hit back with their teams winning four of the six pools.

“It has brought a French feel to the tournament,” added Cullen, “and you have to say they are looking pretty formidable, particularly with the prospect for them of playing in the final in Paris in May.”

Indeed, the quartet of French qualifiers for the last eight is a record Gallic representation, while England’s representation of one, Northampton, is the Premiership’s lowest in history.

It is the first time the two Irish heavyweights have secured home quarter-finals in the same campaign, though the semi-final draw means the quarter-final weekend of April 9th-11th will be the last action in Ireland this season.

While Munster will host Northampton in a repeat of Friday’s concluding pool match, it’s likely Leinster will keep their tie against Clermont at the RDS.

While Leinster appear to have had dialogue with Croke Park during the Big Freeze, the rent would be prohibitive.

Furthermore, the holders might well deem the RDS a more favourable venue against the crack French outfit.

Plenty of rugby will be played between now and then, not least the Six Nations. In addition to two rounds of Magners League matches during the Six Nations, there are another two rounds prior to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, while one or both may look to have their postponed games rearranged for one of the Six Nations weekends.

For better or for worse, Munster also host Leinster at Thomond Park a week before the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

Munster will fret over the condition of John Hayes throughout the Six Nations, as well as endeavouring to give Marcus Horan as much rugby as they can following the departure of Wian du Preez for a rematch with the formidable Northampton scrum.

That they have been drawn away from home in a prospective semi-final will not have surprised them. They have been away in six of their eight semis to date.

Bonus-point wins by Gloucester and Cardiff Blues away to the Dragons and Harlequins yesterday also conspired to deny Ulster the consolation of a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals and thereby prevent all four Irish teams qualifying for the knock-out stages for the first time.

Connacht’s reward for being the top-seeded qualifier is a home tie with Bourgoin, whose 18-9 win away to Leeds yesterday made them the fifth-ranked pool winner in that competition.

When yesterday’s games kicked off, the last eight were known, but none of the quarter-final pairings had been decided, while Toulouse and Biarritz were attempting to beat Sale and Glasgow and thereby move ahead of Clermont in the pecking order to secure home advantage.

Toulouse won 19-13, while Biarritz came from 20-11 behind early in the second half to win 41-20.

Anyway, on Saturday evening at Twickenham it’s a moot point whether winning the match and earning a home quarter-final, or instead drawing and thereby hosting French opposition was more advantageous. But you’d have thought that earning a home quarter-final, with a draw the minimum target to that end, was paramount.

Michael Cheika maintained they had conveyed this message to their players, but it didn’t look that way, not least when Rob Kearney gathered Chris Malone’s drop-goal attempt with the 80 minutes having passed.

The one place for the ball to go was Row Z. Instead, Kearney sliced his punt downfield to, of all people, Malone. Cue his second attempt, which drifted just wide.

It’s easy to do the maths in the stands, of course.

In the heat of battle, players can become overloaded with information or simply put other matters out of their minds. That’s also partly why playing sport offers such escapism from the real world.

“We did send a message down that the draw was good enough, but whether they got it or not, I don’t know,” admitted Cheika with a broad smile.

“But they know the story, they are smart enough footballers to get back in the game”.

When asked whether this message had reached Kearney, Cheika laughed and said: “Don’t ask me that, you know I don’t like lying!”