Once again, for the sixth season running in fact, Leinster are the last Irish team standing in the Champions Cup. After Leinster’s 52-0 quarter-final win over Glasgow on Friday night, Munster bade adieu to the tournament at a throbbing Stade Chaban-Delmas by dint of a 47-29 defeat to Bordeaux Bègles, so leaving Leo Cullen’s side to carry the flag when hosting Northampton in the first semi-final on Saturday, May 3rd, at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 5.30pm).
This is a repeat of last year’s semi-final, which was held in Croke Park, although having moved two games to the home of the GAA already this season, Leinster have opted to host the Saints at the Aviva Stadium this time. Northampton secured their place in the last four with a facile 51-16 win over Castres.
The other all-French semi-final will see Bordeaux host Toulouse, after their dramatic 21-18 win in Toulon, at the Matmut Stadium de Gerland on Sunday, May 4th, (kick-off 3pm).
The Munster interim head coach Ian Costello had said that if his side did not back up their titanic round-of-16 win over La Rochelle a week p-previously it wouldn’t count for anything.
However, over the course of the last two weeks Munster had a famous win over Ronan O’Gara’s team, and with the dust having barely settled on Saturday’s defeat, Costello accepted that strides had been made in the last three weeks, beginning with their win over Connacht in Castlebar over a fortnight ago.
“I’d go back to that Connacht game, we were under an awful lot of pressure. It was one we had to win for our URC season or we wouldn’t be in this competition next year, so the energy, the vibe, the feeling in the camp is really positive.
“The coaches and the staff have done a really good job, especially in the last month, and the players have been outstanding. Today was about being fresh. The danger was emotionally we wouldn’t reach the same levels. Today wasn’t about emotion. Today was about accuracy and we didn’t execute.
“That’s going to be the regret piece because I thought we had a really, really good week. We felt we had a good plan. Unfortunately we weren’t accurate enough to execute.”
That win in La Rochelle was Munster’s first knock-out victory on French soil since 2002 and their team reconnected with their supporters, which must have numbered 3,000 or so again in the 32,215-capacity crowd, at the venue where the Red Army was effectively born in the semi-finals 25 years ago.
“We couldn’t hear on the mic; we struggled to get messages to the other side of the field,” said Costello. “The support was incredible. We’re going to regret what could have been today in terms of our performance. Very disappointed for that huge support. It was the same last week, last week was special, and this was another opportunity in a special competition with such a good following. So very disappointed that we didn’t give them the performance that they deserved.”
Munster now turn their attentions to the URC, where they must achieve the basic target of a top eight finish and with that qualification for next season’s Champions Cup. They sit fifth, five points adrift of the Sharks and six behind the third-placed Bulls, whom they host at Thomond Park next Saturday, but also mindful of the eight teams below them who are within six points.
“We’ve one focus, finish as high up the league as possible, make sure we’re in the play-offs, that’s the first priority,” said Costello.
“We’ve got massive games left. We’ve worked our way up from 13th to fifth and it’s making sure now over the next couple of weeks, the Bulls and Cardiff, we’ve two performances and two results. Unfortunately we don’t have a semi-final, that will give us a chance to take a break and really hit the last couple of games of the season as well.
“The URC is huge for us as well. It’s just very disappointing to go out of a competition that we love so much.”
Connacht will also have truckloads of regrets after a 43-40 loss in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup at the Dexcom Stadium last Saturday night to Racing 92 despite playing most of the game against 14 men.
They thus missed out on a home semi-final against Lyon and sit 13th, three points adrift of the top eight, and with a trip to South Africa on Monday ahead of games against the Stormers and Lions.
