Okay, so it's been a very long time since you've heard anything from me on the rugby front. Take a scroll down the page and you'll see my last article on this blog was during the World Cup where I predicted Ireland and Sean O'Brien to hand Wales their own ass.. How very wrong I was!
Fast forward to the present though and it's another massive weekend for Irish rugby as Ulster book their place in the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup (well done) and both Munster & Leinster look to make a great escape from their pools.
So it's do or die for Munster & Leinster, below explains what needs to happen for both to go through.
Everyone who follows the Heineken Cup will know that there are 6 pools. It'll be the winners of the 6 pools along with the 2 best placed runners-up who will make up the Quarter final pairings. From looking at the groups, Pool 2 (below) will probably give us a runner up provided Ospreys lose this weekend. From an Irish perspective, we want Ospreys to hammer Leicester Tigers out the door and stop them getting a losing bonus point.
| 1 |  |  | Leicester Tigers | 14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |  |  | Toulouse | 13 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 |  |  | Ospreys | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | |  | Benetton Treviso | 1 |
Pool 6 then shows a similar situation ...
| 1 | |  | Toulon | 18 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | |  | Montpellier | 18* | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | |  | Sale Sharks | 4* | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | |  | Cardiff Blues | 1 |
*Toulon have yet to play Cardiff this weekend and unless there's an almighty upset then I'd imaigne they'll win handy and take themselves to 5 unbeaten games and a total of 23 points.
This would set up a last round game between the 2 french sides with Montpellier hosting Toulon where a home win would see them qualify more than likely as a best place runner up. Even they did manage to top the group, then Toulon would get 2nd place and qualify. So, again, from an irish perspective, we want Toulon to go 6 from 6 really and stop Montpellier advancing beyond their 18 points so far.
Currently Ulster have qualified as group winners and will look to secure a home quarter final next weekend in France. Munster can still top their group if things go tits up for Saracens this evening when they visit Racing Metro, failing that, they can achieve 2 bonus point wins and reach a maximum of 21 points. Leinster on the other hand, simply need to turn on the style they showed last year and pick up two bonus point wins to reach a maximum of 20.
Its going to be a real hum dinger of a closing round next weekend if Leinster and Munster can both get bonus point wins this weekend and keep themselves alive in the competition.
