RUGBY: The draw for the semi-final of the European Heineken Cup took place at Murrayfield today and it threw up an interesting scenario in terms of venues as Munster and Leinster are scheduled to meet should they both advance from their respective quarter-finals.
If the current European champions defeat Ospreys in the quarter-finals and Leinster get past Harlequins then the two provinces will meet in the last four after being placed in the same side of the today's draw.
Munster came out of the hat first which means they gained “home country advantage” but this opens a new conundrum for officials if the two Irish provinces meet in May.
Competition rules state the side with home country advantage must move the match to a different venue other than their Pool and quarter-final home ground. That effectively rules out the possibility of using Munster's redeveloped Thomond Park in Limerick.
Lansdowne Road is still out of commission as redevelopment work at the 50,000-seater stadium is ongoing.
It remains to be seen if Croke Park will be used and such a mouth-watering fixture would surely have no difficulty in selling out. However, GAA Headquarters has only been open to international matches other than Gaelic Games up to this point.
This will be an area of further discussion and if the Croke Park option is explored, ultimately the decision will come down to the GAA to grant use of their 82,500-seater stadium.
If the use of Croke Park is denied there is a real possibility the double European champions could be forced to play the potential semi-final at the RDS in Dublin, Leinster’s home ground while Lansdowne is being redeveloped.
In any case Leinster coach Michael Cheika said the potential semi-final is a long way off and there is the small matter of Harlequins to overcome first.
“It’s a bit too far ahead for us to be worrying about the semi-finals, but we’re just delighted to be in the competition,” said Cheika at today’s draw.
“All of our concentration in this tournament will be on Harlequins and I’m sure that they will fancy their chances against us. English teams seem to see Leinster as a side they can beat and we’ll be doing our best to make sure that doesn’t happen.
The other side of today's draw sees the winner of the Cardiff versus Toulouse quarter-final take on the winner between Leicester and Bath.
The semi-finals will be played at venues selected by European Cup Rugby (ERC) on the weekend of May 2nd-3rd with the final at Murrayfield on Saturday, May 23rd (kick-off 5pm).
The dates and times for the quarter-finals, although not all of the venues, were also confirmed today. Munster, with the benefit of a home draw, will be face the Ospreys at Thomond Park on Sunday, April 12th and it is a clash centre Rua Tipoki is looking forward to.
“All the teams are really good but Ospreys are a team we’ve got a lot of respect for and we actually like the way they play the game,” he said.
“They use the ball well and use the space well so we’re definitely going to have our hands full in the quarter-final, but hopefully the Thomond Park crowd can bring us home.”
Leinster must wait to learn whether their clash with Harlequins will be switched from the Twickenham Stoop to Twickenham itself but at least fans now know the match will also be on the Sunday.
2009 Heineken Cup semi-final draw
(number denotes seeding)
(1) Cardiff / (8) Toulouse v (4) Leicester / (5) Bath
(2) Munster / (7) Ospreys v (3) Harlequins / (6) Leinster
Quarter-finals
Saturday, April 11th
Cardiff Blues (1) v Toulouse (8), 3.30pm
Leicester Tigers (4) v Bath Rugby (5), 6pm
Sunday, April 12th
Munster (2) v Ospreys (7), 1pm
Harlequins (3) v Leinster (6), 3.30pm
