FOR a half-hour yesterday, Leeds Tykes looked like being the most unlikely qualifiers for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, but then came Brian O’Driscoll. The Ireland and Lions captain inspired Leinster to a magnificent win away to Bath to claim the last place in the draw and complete a weekend of wonderfullyfluctuating fortunes in the European tournament.
It also completed an Irish resurgence that will leave Eddie O’Sullivan, the national coach, a happy man a fortnight before the opening round of the RBS Six Nations Championship. Munster and Leinster pulled off such convincing wins over English rivals that O’Sullivan must believe he can resurrect Ireland’s fortunes after their decline in 2005.
Leeds themselves delivered the knockout blow to last season’s finalists, Stade Français, by scoring six tries against Cardiff Blues, enough to remove the Paris club from the tournament and also ensure no Welsh representative in the last eight. But the hopes of the Tykes, so bright at 2.45pm yesterday, were trodden down 30 minutes later by the twinkling feet of O’Driscoll and his colleagues, whose reward is a visit to Toulouse over the weekend of March 31-April 2.
That will bring the two most sparkling back divisions in Europe face to face because the by-product of Leinster’s win was to deny Bath the chance of being seeded in first place. That privilege went to Toulouse, the holders, and left Bath facing a visit to Leicester, the team that, for the past 20 years, have been their deadliest rivals.
In that sense, the final round of pool games completed a disappointing weekend for Andy Robinson, the England head coach. An all-English quarter-final, of course, removes one of the Guinness Premiership clubs from a potential semi-final place, while Sale Sharks, taught a rugby lesson in Limerick, must travel to play Biarritz in San Sebastián for a place in the last four.
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In addition, Robinson has watched two clubs who provide ten of his best 36 players — who came together at Loughborough last night for a two-day training camp — lose their European way.
Munster’s revival, with a bonus point claimed in injury time, was enough to win their pool and earn a home tie, surely at their fortress, Thomond Park, against Perpignan, who needed to score nine tries against Calvisano to earn home advantage but could manage only six. Had Leinster not done them a favour, though, Munster would have had to play away, but now they will fancy a sixth appearance in the semifinals, the draw for which will be made tomorrow in Cardiff.
“We’re kind of like Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle, we need to score more points than the other side,” O’Driscoll said after Bath’s late rally, which brought them two tries. The result ensured that Stade could have no gripe with the final eight, being the most obvious losers by the decision of European Rugby Cup Ltd (ERC) last week to award five points to Leeds for a match (with Calvisano) they did not play.
ERC arrived at a similar decision on Saturday after Northampton could not play their European Challenge Cup match away to Viadana. That match was postponed from Friday night, the pitch was still frozen the next day and Viadana declined to travel to Livorno to fulfil the fixture. Northampton, Gloucester, Newcastle Falcons and London Irish now all have home ties in Europe’s second-tier tournament.