RUGBY:THE CREAM invariably comes to the top at the business end of the Heineken Cup and, after overcoming the two-time European champions and English top dogs Leicester on Saturday, next up for Leinster is the crème de la crème of French rugby.
In a repeat of last year’s semi-final, Leinster will host the four-time Heineken Cup and 17-time French champions Toulouse. It doesn’t exactly get any easier for Joe Schmidt’s men, but unlike a year ago, at least this time they have them coming to the Aviva.
That semi-final will take place on Saturday, April 30th, after Toulouse beat Biarritz 27-20 after extra time in San Sebastian yesterday in a repeat of last year’s final.
The May Day semi-final will see Northampton host Perpignan at the stadium:mk after the Saints’ powerful pack eventually subdued a brave and more creative Ulster 23-13 in Milton Keynes yesterday.
There was no shame in Ulster’s defeat, but Courtney Lawes set the tone as a human wrecking ball and, a tad ominously for Munster, their imminent arrival, BJ Botha, was savaged at scrum time by Soane Tonga’uiha.
For their part, Munster will host Harlequins in the Amlin Challenge Cup semi-finals at Thomond Park just before the Leinster match at 1pm for the right to meet the winners of the previous night’s semi-final between Clermont Auvergne and Stade Francais.
Last year’s 26-16 win in Toulouse was the French club’s fifth victory in eight meetings with Leinster, but perhaps encouragingly, Clermont had something of an Indian sign over Guy Noves’ team in Schmidt’s three years there as assistant coach.
Leinster had to dig deep for Saturday’s 17-10 win over Leicester, and afterwards a “delighted” Schmidt commented: “When you are in a cauldron like that and the pressure is on it can just be a fight to get over the line and I felt we did that.”
With their Magners League play-off hopes in the balance, neither Leinster nor Ulster can afford to ease off when they meet at the RDS next Saturday, though Leinster ought to be an even more cohesive side in three weeks’ time.
