Munster defeated Stade Francais by 37 points to 32 to book their place and a ‘home’ semi-final at Landsdowne Road at the end of the month. The match was a high scoring thrilling encounter with end to end action throughout.

Munster started excellently thanks to great try within two minutes curtsey of Shaun Payne, who was set up perfectly by Christian Cullen. O’Gara converted and followed up with a penalty before Rob Henderson went over to put another seven points on the board, but Stade never gave up and the match remained close throughout the first half, with Stade getting within 14 points, but Munster responded towards the end of the half with a well worked Mike Mullins try.

Stade started well again in the second half with a try almost immediately, but Marcus Horan soon went over in the corner to bring Munster’s tally to 31. With 10 minutes it was all to play for, as Stade thanks to the boot of Diego Dominguez got to with 6 points of Munster, but ultimately it was the very uncharacteristic errors from the boot of Dominguez that left Munster in the lead going into injury time.

Man of The Match Ronan O’Gara slotted over another two penalites to put the match beyond Stade, who still managed to score a consolation try, but in the end the day belonged to Munster.

O’Gara along with Alan Gaffney gave a sobering account of the match afterwards however, saying that Stade had proved the Munster fans wrong who just believed they could turn up and win the match.

Munster will now face the winner of tommorrow’s match between Wasps and Gloucester on Sunday the 25th of April in Landsdowne Road. Ticket will go on sale at the Munster branch, Thursday morning at 9.30 and at the Leinster branch the following morning at the same time.

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