Munster made it through a tough battle vs La Rochelle and booked another quarter final on French soil where they will now take on Joey Carbery’s Bordeaux Begles side who also have Noel Mc Namara as part of their coaching group.
Munster came through by one point with a drop goal from Jack Crowley in the 68th minute proving crucial pushing the score beyond a converted try. This allowed Munster to push the envelope slightly in defence and this resulted in Alex Kendellan spending time on the naughty step for an infringement at a maul as La Rochelle advanced forward.
La Rochelle will feel aggrieved that a penalty wasn’t awarded in their favour in the 80th minute after Fineen Wycherley caught a La Rochelle player over the top of the shoulder but referee Andrea Piardi had said he not seen foul play before it was looked at by the television match official.
Munster showed some sharp attacking intent with Craig Casey, Jack Crowley and Thaakir Abrahams showing real quality with an Abrahams break at the heart of the first Munster try that was finished off by Craig Casey.
La Rochelle had a try in the opening minute checked off for a foot in touch by Teddy Thomas and after another review it was chalked off. La Rochelle led 10-7 at half time with a late Ihiaia West penalty pushing Ronan O Gara’s men 3 points clear.
In the 2nd half, Munster levelled things up through another Jack Crowley penalty after strong break down work from Calvin Nash in the opening minute of the second half.
Munster then stretched further clear with a block down try from Gavin Coombes after La Rochelle had missed a glaring chance when Teddy Thomas stepped into traffic rather than attack the corner flag with only Oli Jager and Josh Wycherley defending the outside and with that opportunity gone, Munster went up field and went into a 17-10 lead thanks to the hard work of Coombes and Crowley’s boot.
Andrew Smith then popped up to get Munster’s third try and put Munster 22-10 up with Crowley pushing his conversion just wide.
The late drop goal from Crowley was O Gara esq in quality and the timing of it was important as it pushed Munster three scores clear and even allowing for a late converted La Rochelle try, Munster as they so often do manged to find an unlikely win from somewhere.
They will now face Bordeaux Begles in the quarter final on Saturday with a 3pm kick off.
Leinster will face Glasgow on Friday evening with an 8pm kick off in the Aviva Stadium and both sides know each other well. Leinster comfortably saw off the challenge of Harlequins by 62-0. We are seeing now talk of salary caps and how competitive the Premiership is as reasons why Harlequins lost out last weekend.
11 years on from the last changes to the Champions Cup format, we are beginning to see that familiar talk and tone taking hold where ex english players in particular are crying foul over the strength in depth of Leinster.
The Premiership has lost three teams in recent years so maybe it is time for those voices to concern themselves with matters on the home front rather than looking for the Champions Cup format to be yet again tinkered with.
The URC itself will again have to look at a Welsh side talk of entering examinership. People will have to look at that closely.
The region will look to the WRU to take ownership of the team and try and steer it out of yet more choppy waters.
Leinster will fancy their chances of reaching the last 4 and will feel they can see of the challenge of Glasgow who will want to set down their own marker and don’t forget they are defending URC champions.
It will be a tough tight battle where Henco Venter who was on the bench for Glasgow for last Saturday has been suspended for 6 weeks for making contact with the eye of Dan Cole.
Leinster will be in a position to select a very strong 23 to see can they continue their quest for that 5th star.
Connacht will face Racing 92 in Galway this weekend after beating Cardiff Rugby in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup. This will be a tough assignment for Connacht but they will feel they can take anyone on in Galway.
We have three sides in quarter final action this coming weekend and while I was slightly out in saying last week that only 2 of the 4 Irish sides in action would taste victory. I might be braver this week and say all 3 teams will win. It will take a monumental effort for Munster to win in Bordeaux but I said something similar last time and look what happened….
Connacht too have a tough game facing Racing 92 but here’s hoping home advantage will help them win what will be an arm wrestle….