Munster and Leinster braced for showdown
Should Munster defeat Ospreys and Leinster overcome Harlequins in the quarter-finals, the two Irish provinces are set for a repeat of their seismic 2006 Heineken Cup semi-final clash when Munster triumphed on a 30-6 score-line.
Munster will have ‘home country’ advantage in any semi-final with Croke Park already been cited as a possible venue for the fixture on May 2 or 3.
Leinster coach Michael Cheika said a reprise of the epic 2006 clash would be “a brilliant occasion for Irish rugby” while Munster backs coach Jason Holland said, “it’d be huge day for the country”.
Munster cannot play their ‘home country’ semi-final at Thomond Park, and at present only one ground, the RDS, is available to host a Heineken Cup semi-final.
ERC requirements stipulate that the venue must be a neutral venue with a minimum capacity of 20,000, and under these requirements the only ground to fit those criteria at the moment would be the RDS in Dublin.
“The venues for the semi-finals are picked by the organisers of the Heineken Cup, the ERC, with the Home Union and they would nominate a venue that would be available to them,” said ERC spokesman John Corcoran. “There’s a possibility the RDS is on the cards – should Munster and Leinster emerge — but venues haven’t been selected yet.”
It has also emerged that it wouldn’t be up to ERC to approach the GAA and see whether Croke Park was available; rather the IRFU would have to approach the GAA regarding the availability of their 82,300 capacity stadium.
Should the RDS emerge to be the only venue nominated and picked by both the ERC and the IRFU, then a farcical situation could arise with Munster playing their ‘home country’ semi against Leinster at the RDS.
However, Cheika dismissed the possibility of Leinster playing an ‘away’ semi- final in Ireland at the RDS.
The venues and times for their quarter-finals were also announced with Munster facing Ospreys at Thomond Park on Sunday, April 12 (1pm) while Leinster travel to London the same day to take on Harlequins (3.30pm).
“It’s great to have a bit of luck as far as the semi-final draw is concerned,” said Holland in Edinburgh yesterday, “but at the same time it’s a bit strange talking about it – we have to get over the Ospreys to get there. It’s good for sport if we do get there because our semi-final is at home.
“It is a possibility we could be drawn against Leinster but we can’t be thinking too much about that until we actually get there. I’m sure Leinster are in the same boat. It would be a huge day and I’m sure Ireland will go mad. It’s good for us to be in Ireland. The supporters have forked out thousands of euro over the last ten years and it would be nice for them to have a nice cheap weekend away.”
Rua Tipoki echoed those sentiments but said Leinster may come looking for revenge after their defeat in 2006.
“Obviously I’ve seen footage from ‘06,” said Tipoki who arrived in Munster the following summer. “I was on the receiving end last year in Magners League matches where we were on the receiving end of two defeats. They may well have been still hurting and they came to Musgrave Park and gave us a hiding then and also gave us a hiding up in the RDS. ‘06 might have been still fresh in their minds.”
Cheika said that while a Munster-Leinster semi-final would capture the imagination of the Irish public, he’s not looking beyond his side’s quarter-final date with Harlequins.
“Like everyone else, from our point of view semi-finals are so far away – one really doesn’t even consider it because of the size of the task that we’re going to have away from home and winning a quarter-final away from home.
“I know there’s a carrot of a possible Munster-Leinster match – no one would like to be in that situation more than me because it means that we’ve won the quarter! A reprise of ‘06 would be great – even though we didn’t come out of it, it was still a brilliant occasion for Irish rugby and for both teams.
“If that was to come about it would be awesome, but we’ve got a very difficult assignment going away from home to London and obviously everything hinges on that. But we’ll be doing our best to make it happen – there’s no doubt about that.”
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