UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES this week would be when we were to fully shelve whatever drama had unfolded in the Six Nations and don provincial garb again when the Heineken Champions Cup reached the knock-out stage.
In the absence of normality, take a walk down memory lane of European Cup quarter-finals past and see if we can avoid stumbling along the way.
On their way to the 1999 title, who did Ulster defeat (a team they also met in the pool stage) in the quarter-final?
Leicester Tigers
Stade Francais
Toulouse
Colomiers
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Munster took the hard road to their second Heineken Cup final, going away in 2002 to beat which French side in the last eight?
Biarritz
Stade Francais
Toulouse
Colomiers
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Name the heavily-medalled Irishman who scored two tries when Leinster crashed out at the quarter-final stage in 2007?
Eoin Reddan
Geordan Murphy
Leo Cullen
Jeremy Staunton
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Leinster scored four tries in their famous 2006 win away to Toulouse. Which of these men did not score in the rout?
Brian O'Driscoll
Eric Miller
Cameron Jowitt
Denis Hickie
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Later that day, where did Munster take the field to set up an inter-provincial semi-final showdown?
Thomond Park
Stade Aime Giral
Lansdowne Road
Croke Park
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Can you name the player who cracked a fake blood capsule in his mouth during Leinster's 2009 win away to Harlequins?
Mike Brown
Nick Evans
Nick Easter
Tom Williams
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Ulster returned to the last eight in 2011, but lost in frustrating fashion to Northampton. Late on, who did Dylan Hartley complain he had been bitten by?
Simon Danielli
Adam D'Arcy
Johann Muller
Pedrie Wannenburg
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Name the veteran fullback in place as Ulster claimed a shock win away to Munster in 2012?
Jared Payne
Percy Montgomery
Stefan Terblanche
Adam D'Arcy
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In 2015, Leinster squeaked beyond Bath thanks to six penalties from which goal-kicker?
Jonathan Sexton
Jimmy Gopperth
Isa Nacewa
Ian Madigan
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Andrew Conway's brilliant counter tipped the balance against Toulon in 2018 for Munster. Whose try had given the French side the lead eight minutes earlier?
Josua Tuisova
Semi Radradra
Chris Ashton
Ma'a Nonu
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You scored out of !
Cruising to the semi-finals
Picked up exactly where you left off in the pool and powered your way through this hurdle. The trophy is in sight now.
You scored out of !
Job done
You didn't quite click as well as you'd like after coming back to the province off Six Nations duty, but you dogged it out and you're in the final four.
You scored out of !
Shaded
You put up a brave effort, but the fates / questions conspired against you there.
You scored out of !
Sure didn't you do well to get this far?
Tell the truth, you were lucky to get eighth seed and make the knock-out stage and weren't really expecting to go away from home and win this one
Excellent analysis of all the pieces of the jigsaw of moves leading to great tries
Great analysis as always. What an atmosphere yesterday. Delighted for Sexton and Healy!!! What a Six Nations send off
@Kenneth O Connor: Healy not getting a run was disappointing and strange
@Noel Lynn: He did… only about 4 minutes but he did play.
Yesterday(and last week) should put to bed any doubt about Conan’s value. Every bit as effective as Doris imo.
@Gary Donlan: doris level ahead
@Gary Donlan: I’m a big, big fan of Conan – he’s an outstanding player – but I’d have to acknowledge that Doris is at the very top of the global tree. And he has so much more to grow, being so young. Arguably a future World Player of the Year nominee, if not winner.
I see lots of people saying how England really used line speed yesterday to get in Irelands face, that’s not what happened at all. England played a soft drift defence, not putting too much pressure on the first carrier / passer, and not committing too many men to the breakdown, opting to be more disruptive and messy rather than look for turnovers. It was an interesting tactic and one that threw a lot of the Irish players off, particularly Furlong who takes the first pivot option quite often. Ireland will need to learn how to adapt to it by World Cup, I can’t imagine South Africa or France would try it, they would trust their line speed, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Scotland or even New Zealand thought about using it.
Great analysis there. It shows really how intelligent this group are. Dorris, JVF,, Aki, Sexton, Hansen running subplots and dummies lines and how they build a try 3 phases out. To have so many on the same page is extraordinary and as Farrell said, they will get a lot better over the next few months with more time collectively in camp.
Roll on the WC
It was squeaky bum time for much of the game. England gave it everything. Ireland found a way to win. Work done with decoy runners is magnificent. Enjoy, upwards and onwards to France
That was some offload by Conan for sheehans try.
Sheehan is a pure speed merchant
@Gary Galligan: He’s a 4×4 at full speed.
On the strike plays which Ireland use we have seen a few of these in this 6 nations I believe they have only used a small number of these in this 6 nations and there are many more which they had no need to use and they are been reserved for the later stages of the world Cup.
I would imagine when Farrell and his team review this game they will be a little concerned. Obviously the short term gain here, winning a grand slam, is brilliant. But there was a lot of pressure going into the game and we did not handle it well. Ultimately a red card may have won it for Ireland and whether you agree or disagree with the card the nature of it shows it can how easily happen under current rules. (There was at least 1 red card possibility for us that was missed by the ref and TMO). This team will ultimately be judged on how it performs in the World Cup. When they meet Scotland on the 7th of October it will more than likely be a knock out game. The pressure on them will easily be as intense as yesterday, probably more so. They will need to be a lot better. If we don’t make it out of the group, this Grand Slam will lose a lot of it’s shine. Of course hopefully by the time we meet Scotland SA will have 2 losses so it won’t matter :)
@Pud: OTOH, the experience of yesterday, a real pressure cooker, will stand to them. Plus, those guys played a lot of intense rugby over a short period of time. Some were definitely not at their best, following injuries (Furlong, for example, looked rusty; Henshaw wasn’t fully up to speed; Ringrose in and out). Farrell took some risks, playing guys like Porter, VDF, Keenan, Hansen and others to their limits (Keenan looked tired yesterday, as did others). The player management plan for the RWC needs to cater for the interactive effects of physical endurance and how it affects mental/emotional resilience. I’m pretty confident they’re on top of that. And again, all the players will be better for the experience of this 6N.
@Pud: South Africa then Scotland…followed by France or New Zealand…three massive banana skins….I don’t think if we are stopped before semi final, yesterday’s outstanding achievement will be diminished….cruel world cup draw.
Herring sealed victory over the All Blacks with a similar try in the third test .. hooker is definitely a position we don’t need to worry about… bench again made the difference yesterday
Murray Kinsella, single handedly helping other teams work out Ireland!!