Sarries shock sees friends reunited

ALAN GAFFNEY was handed a reunion with old friends Munster later this month as his Saracens staged this upset victory over the Heineken Cup favourites at Vicarage Road yesterday and ensured the Irish province a return trip to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena for the Heineken Cup semi-final.

Munster have been to the Ricoh before, losing there 24-23 to Wasps during this season’s group stages in November, and semi-finals are by now second nature but Gaffney, who twice led the Irish province into the last four, will take his latest charges into a first such contest on April 27.

Having seen Saracens overpower Ospreys at a sold-out 18,000-plus Vicarage Road, Gaffney admitted the text messages between Watford and the south-west of Ireland had been flying back and forth over the weekend but the Australian refused to look too far ahead to plotting the downfall of a team he coached for three years.