Munster Through to Quarter Finals

Munster became the only Irish Province to qualify for the quarter finals
of the Heineken Cup on Saturday beating Bourgoin 26-3. Leinster
lost to Biarritz on Saturday & Ulster beat the Gwent Dragons
on Friday night.

Munster 26-3 Bourgoin:

Bourgoin fly-half Alexandre Peclier kicked the visitors into a second minute
lead with a confident penalty from 25 metres. Munster centre Mullins touched
down near the posts after 22 minutes and O’Gara converted to give Munster a
7-3 lead.

Ireland second row O’Connell crawled over four minutes before the half-time
whistle, off the back of a Donncha O’Callaghan line-out take, for his second
European try and an interval lead of 12-3.

On 62 minutes scrum-half Stringer sneaked over from five metres for his first
European try of the season and O’Gara’s conversion put Munster 19-7 in front.
Munster still needed another try to top the group and they secured it when referee
Tony Spreadbury whistled for a penalty try as Bourgoin’s front row collapsed
a scrum five metres from their line.

Munster’s fifth win of the campaign sees them top the pool ahead of Gloucester,
as a result of their better performance in the two games played out between
the sides this season.

Full Details at: www.munsterrugby.ie

Biarritz 32-21 Leinster:

Biarritz got off to an ideal start with two first half tries from full back
Nicholas Brusque. Dimitri Yachvili failed to convert either and also sent two
penalties wide before Leinster had a great chance to close the gap but an extraordinary
error from John McWeeney. The St. Mary’s man picked up a great chip forward
from Burke and looked sure to slide in unchallenged. However, he knocked on
over the line. A mistake that would prove very costly later.

Moments later Leinster made amends through superb foresight from Brian O Meara
forced Biarritz into conceding a penalty try. The Corkman converted and Leinster
were just 10 7 down at halftime.

After the break things went drastically wrong for Gary Ella’s men. Just after
Marlu nipped in for a converted early score, Ben Gissing was sent to the sin
bin for dragging down a maul, and Biarritz punished the Lions for it, with another
quick try. This time it was lock forward Manent who got on the scoresheet for
the bonus point and again Yachvili converted. The game looked out of reach for
the Lions, when with ten minutes to go, Betsen ran in their fourth, which again
Yachvili converted.

Then, with ten minutes to go, Leinster mounted a brave comeback, orchestrated
by Gordon D’Arcy. He broke up the right wing, off loaded to Dempsey, who crossed
over in the corner and the full-back converted his own score. Then, on eighty
minutes, Biarritz killed the ball a few metres out to hand Leinster a penalty.
D’Arcy took a quick tap, moved it wide quickly and Gleeson touched down in the
corner for their third try. Dempsey struck a great conversion from the sideline
to keep them in the hunt. The Lions then had five minutes to steal a final try
and that quarterfinal place, but despite mounting several attacking moves, the
dream came to and end when they spilled forward on 85 minutes. Biarritz cleared
to touch, the final whistle blew, and Leinster were out.

Full Details at: www.leinsterrugby.ie

Ulster 22-0 Gwent Dragons:

In Ravenhill it was Hooker Paul Shields who opened the scoring with a fourth-minute
try, and was quickly followed by a five-pointer from Ulster’s David Humphreys,
who toed the ball ahead for 70 metres before dotting down.

Man-of-the-match Humphreys added the kicks at goal and winger Tyrone Howe scored
his side’s third try to take the home side’s tally to 22 as the visitors struggled
to get into the match.

The Dragons faced a Catch-22 situation in the second spell, but they weren’t
up to it, the irony for the home fans was that despite their complete dominence,
Ulster were unable to qualify no matter what the score.

Full Details at: www.ulsterrugby.ie