Heineken Cup Quarter Final Review
Well at the end of another great weekend of Heineken Cup action, we now have our 4 semi-finalists and they are Munster, Clermont Auvergne, Saracens and Toulon. So we have two from France and one each from England and Ireland.
Looking at the performances from yesterday one would have to say that Munster put in a close to perfect performance to make another semi-final. The visit of Toulouse promised so much and the only team that delivered a performance anywhere near their normal standard was Munster.
Guy Noves will look back on this quarter final with huge amounts of regret and also his players in particular his forwards will feel they got bossed in the scrum and also at the breakdown even with the early loss of Peter O Mahony his replacement CJ Stander made an immediate impact and offered plenty in both attack and defence scoring one of his sides 6 tries on a day when Munster found there try scoring boots again.
Munster now look forward to a semi-final date with Toulon on April 27th in Marseilles. Toulon could be without Jonny Wilkinson who went off with a hamstring injury. That may push the tie slightly in Munster’s favour and the one thing Munster have in their favour is that unlike last season they have gone to France this season and won. So we now look forward to Toulon vs Munster, Toulon’s millions against the parish that is Munster.
The first semi-final pits the conquerors of both Leicester and Ulster together in the form of Clermont Auvergne and Saracens. So that puts the Premiership league leaders against last year’s beaten finalists. In Vern Cotter’s last season in charge they will want to send him out on a high and give him the perfect send-off heading for the Scotland head coaches job in June.
Having watched all four semi’s my finalists would be Clermont Auvergne and Toulon in a repeat of last season’s final in Dublin. But don’t count out either Saracens or Munster!!
By
Cian Mc Gibney
06/04/2014.
