The News Review:
- Toulouse into Heineken Cup final
- A Heineken Cup classic is in store for Cardiff
- Five-try Bath cruise to final
- Munster happy with the maths
Toulouse into Heineken Cup final
stuff.co.nz – Apr 27, 2008
London Irish, in the semifinals for the first time had early hope after a try by Topsy Ojo but scores by Manu Ahotaeiloa and William Servat within seven minutes gave Toulouse a deserved 15-10 halftime lead. Sailosi Tagicakibau brought Irish back level at 15-15 early in the second half but two penalties by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde opened up a crucial lead and the experienced French side, appearing in their eighth semi-final, were able to see the game out. In the May 24 final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium they will face either Saracens or 2006 champions Munster, who meet tonight (NZ time) in Coventry.
A Heineken Cup classic is in store for Cardiff
Telegraph.co.uk – Apr 27, 2008
Given that Toulouse and Munster have contested nine finals it’s remarkable that they have never met before on the competition’s grandest stage. Mick Cleary reports.
Five-try Bath cruise to final
Times Online – Apr 27, 2008
This has been done so that correct url isgenerated if we are coming from a section or topic –>Nigel Botherway at The Recreation Grounddiv#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;}Bath will meet Guinness Premiership rivals Worcester in an all-English finalof the European Challenge Cup at Kingsholm on May 25. Sale were simply nomatch for Steve Meehan’s men, who have twice fallen at the final hurdle inthis tournament, but are a force to be reckoned with this time around. If they maintain this level of performance, Worcester’s own trophy dreamscould turn into the nightmare that Sale were forced to endure yesterday. No visit to The Rec is easy, as many teams better than Sale have discovered totheir cost already this season, so Charlie Hodgson was right to smack over adrop goal to give his side the lead in the second minute. It was short-lived, however, as the Sale No 10 then gifted Bath the first of theirfive tries. Michael Claassens, who ran his half-back partner and fellow Springbok ButchJames close in the man-of-the-match stakes, charged down Hodgson’s attemptedclearance kick to score the home side’s first try in the fourth minute… Bath:N Abendanon (S Berne 73min); A Higgins, A Crockett (T Cheeseman72min), O Barkley, M Banahan; B James, M Claassens (M Baxter 75min); DBarnes, L Mears (P Dixon 73min), M Stevens (D Bell 73min), S Borthwick(capt), D Grewcock (P Short 73min), J Faamatuainu, C Goodman (Z Feaunati51min), M Lipman. Sale Sharks:B Foden; C Mayor, C Bell (J Laharrague 19min), LMcAlister, O Ripol (W Cliff 47min); C Hodgson (B Cockbain 72min), RWigglesworth; A Sheridan (L Faure 43min), S Bruno (N Briggs 59min), S Turner(E Roberts 53min), I Fernandez Lobbe (capt, M Hills 49min), D Schofield, SCox, J Fernandez Lobbe, C Jones. Worcester await- WORCESTER need to beat Bath to secure a first-ever Heineken Cup place, afterthey defeated Newcastle Falcons 31-16 in the other European Challenge Cupsemi-final on Friday night. Their success at Sixways was not without drama, however, as floodlight failurehalted play for 15 minutes early in the second half. Worcester led 17-6 atthe time, thanks largely to first-half tries from the impressive MarcelGarvey and Sam Tuitupou. Despite Jonny Wilkinson’s second penalty to reduce the arrears to 17-9, andthe sin-binning of Worcester lock Greg Rawlinson, the Falcons seldomthreatened the home line. Worcester sealed victory with a close-range try on72 minutes from Tom Wood before Tuitupou scored his second following ShaneDrahm’s clever chip over the flay-lying defence.
Munster happy with the maths
Guardian Unlimited – Apr 27, 2008
Whichever way you look at the second-row configurations of Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll, you’ll have an O’pair to keep the house in order, and one left over. The odd one out today for the Heineken Cup semi-final against Saracens at Coventry’s Ricoh Stadium is O’Driscoll. The rangy 29-year-old has 20 Munster appearances under his belt this season, but he sort of knows that when the other two are fit they get the nod. It’s the sort of arrangement that can force a player to seek his fortune elsewhere, as O’Driscoll did when for a couple of years he swapped the south-west of his homeland for the same compass bearings in France and the equally untameable rugby corner of Perpignan. He has been back a while now, filling in, filling out, generally making himself a selector’s nightmare by playing so well that coach Declan Kidney and his assistant Jim Williams have had to think the unthinkable: break up O’Connell and O’Callaghan. If O’Callaghan was named man of the monsoon match, the Thomond Park victory over Wasps in the last round of Heineken Cup pool matches, O’Driscoll was not far behind… He dropped out again as recently as two weekends ago, this time with a hip injury, and missed Munster’s Magners League defeat in Dublin to Leinster. It is easy to see why an in-form O’Driscoll might be promoted above an out-of-sorts O’Connell. And yet, against Gloucester in the Heineken Cup quarter-final at Kingsholm, O’Connell was back to his best, the most willing beast of the ball-carrying burden, a shifter of rucks. The mathematics suddenly looked awkward again. This wasn’t a question of spoiling, but of ruling, taking control of an entire sphere of play and not letting go. O’Connell was irresistibly back. O’Callaghan, as dark of heaped hair as O’Connell is red, was the other second-row that day.