RUGBY/European Cup Quarter-final line-up:Nobody died. Records are made to be broken. But the greatest ramparts of Irish rugby were stormed on Saturday when Leicester ended Munster's celebrated 26-match winning run at Thomond Park. And the psychological wounds will linger.

For Irish rugby, the weekend just gone amounts to a deafening wake-up call. If lessons are learned, it might not be the worst thing that ever happened. Aside from dampening expectations, the manner of the defeats for Munster and Leinster will be, on the eve of the Six Nations, a telling reminder to the Irish management and playing staff of the importance of the basics.

Alas, it came with physical as well as mental wounds and the loss of Shane Horgan for four to six weeks with a knee injury deprives Ireland of a hugely talismanic figure.

Following Gloucester's dissection of the Leinster set-pieces, Leicester gave a clinical lesson in how to play Munster, and by extension Ireland, for this is in essence the pack and the halfbacks of the Irish team.

And it's not as if Munster and Leinster are out of the European Cup. Indeed, the fact they had already qualified for the knockout stages may even have taken some of the edge off their performances.

Munster and Leinster will have to do it the hard way, by playing Llanelli and Wasps away. But at least they're still there. Sixteen other teams, including Toulouse, are not. Their pairings are arguably less imposing than ties away to Biarritz and Leicester, which await Northampton and Stade Français.

Had Munster won they would have hosted Leinster, creating all manner of headaches, not least where the damn tie would have been played. The hope lingers that both can still progress.

The dates will probably be confirmed at the semi-final draw in Twickenham tomorrow, and the four home teams have until February 12th to nominate grounds. Llanelli, an estimated €9 million in debt, have little option but to move their quarter-final from the 11,000 capacity at Stradey Park. The likeliest option would be the 20,000-capacity Liberty Stadium, 12 miles up the road.

Wasps are expected to stay at the 10,000-capacity Adams Park in High Wycombe. Similarly, it seems Tigers will host Stade in Welford Road rather than move to the Walkers Stadium.

Considering how much the English clubs bleat on about the supposedly poor financial returns from the ERC, this is a little ironic.

In any event, as Munster coach Declan Kidney dryly noted, no such dilemmas face the two Irish provinces: "I suppose the politicians will be happy now because there was a lot of nonsense talked during the week about where we were going to play home quarter-finals. I don't think any player from either Leinster or Munster fed into that."

There is a nagging fear that Anthony Foley has torn a calf. The extent of John Kelly's rib injury will be known tomorrow. Akin to Leinster, Munster say goodbye to most of their 13 Irish squad members for the next two months before regrouping with about 12 days to prepare for the tie against Llanelli.

Kidney admitted the players were extremely down: "But we knew we never had a divine right to win matches here. You can look upon it negatively and say yes, we did lose out today or you can look upon it positively and say how great that makes all the other wins.

"Today it sucks, but we just have to pull up our socks and get on with it."

Yet there are more than a few straws to clutch. Leicester's victory was in part founded on the excellence of four Irishmen. Foremost, Geordan Murphy reminded the watching Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan he is every bit as secure as Girvan Dempsey under the high ball, however hostile and capricious the conditions.

Furthermore, he brought much of his counterattacking and potent running to the party, and all in all, it was a classy performance from a class act.

Unsurprisingly, Leo Cullen and Shane Jennings were invariably in the front line; one superb in the air, the other on the ground, while all the while at the core of the physical action.

Ian Humphreys has more than a touch of class about him and gave full expression to his footballing ability. Protected in attack by his pack and defensively on the wing, he kicked beautifully and generally made all the right calls in a strikingly assured display. A path to the World Cup squad may even have been opened up here.

Their performances and much more made a large statement about the relative squad strength of the English and Irish standard-bearers in Europe, though Kidney has always reminded us of this. Leicester, he noted, had made nine changes from the first meeting in Welford Road; Munster could ill afford to do that. Leicester's victory brooked no argument, but Munster are still alive.

Biarritz v Northampton

Llanelli Scarlets v Munster

Wasps v Leinster

Leicester v Stade Français

Ties to be played on weekend of March 30th-April 1st.