Leicester are not on the slide - Gaffney

Munster coach Alan Gaffney today rejected any suggestion that deposed European champions Leicester might have hit a downward spiral following their Heineken Cup quarter-final exit.

Leicester are facing a first season without silverware since 1998, when Bath were crowned European top-dogs, Newcastle won the Premiership and Saracens made off with English rugby’s knockout cup.

The Tigers’ only remaining hope of a trophy this term is to lift a fifth successive league title, but there can be no guarantee that they will even make the Premiership play-offs. Those positions are currently occupied by Gloucester, Sale Sharks and Wasps.

Leicester had no answer to Munster’s stamina, commitment or forward power as the Irish provincial giants avenged their Heineken Cup final defeat last season by winning 20-7 in front of a capacity 17,500 crowd at Welford Road.

Munster’s Irish international half-backs Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer both scored tries during the final 13 minutes, while O’Gara also slotted two penalties and two conversions for a 15-point haul.

In stark contrast, Tigers full-back Tim Stimpson missed four penalties from four attempts, and wing Steve Booth’s second-half touchdown proved woefully insufficient for a Leicester side outgunned in every critical area.

Gaffney though, does not believe that Leicester are a spent force, despite the evidence of this season possibly suggesting otherwise.

“I don’t accept that Leicester are on the wane,” he said. “They have outstanding players in their squad, but our guys stood up to them and were counted.

“Our first-half performance was a bit patchy and a bit panicky, but in the second-half, it was a lot better and our defence was very firm.

“We knew that we had to perform, and our discipline was very good. Now we go to Toulouse in the semi-finals, and they are an exceptional side. It is going to be a very difficult assignment.”

Munster centre Mike Mullins, who played a key role in creating Stringer’s match-clinching try, admitted memories of last season’s Millennium Stadium final defeat had come to the fore.

Leicester flanker Neil Back’s controversial hand-in-the-scrum manoeuvre that denied Munster a late attacking platform has never been forgotten. Almost every time Back touched the ball in open play yesterday, he was booed by Munster fans.

“It is a bit of revenge for last year – pay-back time if you like – and to do it at Welford Road is even better,” Mullins said.

“There was a lot of mucking around in the build-up to the game about ticket allocation, and it all added to our concentration to try and get one over on them.

“I thought that our fans out sung the 12,000-odd Leicester supporters who were in the ground.”

Leicester boss Dean Richards had no complaints about the result, which was Tigers’ first European home defeat since 1999/2000 and first-ever home loss in the Heineken Cup knockout stages.

As a result, England has no semi-final representative for the first time in six seasons of Heineken Cup participation.

“Munster deserved to win. They played better than we did on the day, and played the game in the right areas,” Richards said.

“There were lots of unforced errors from us. Munster put a lot of pressure on us, and we didn’t react.

“If you lose a quarter-final or a semi-final like we did – we were comprehensively beaten – then it is disappointing. We just didn’t turn up. It was not the fact that we lost, it was the manner in which we lost.

“As far as we were concerned, the heart and soul was there, but we made some unforced errors and wrong decisions in key areas.”

Leicester suffered two injury blows during the game, with fly-half Austin Healey and number eight Will Johnson both failing to last the distance. They suffered knee injuries, which will be further assessed this week.

Munster, meanwhile, can now look forward to tackling Toulouse on Saturday, April 26, with Dublin hosting the second semi-final between Leinster and Perpignan 24 hours later.