Let's get ready to rumble in the Park

RUGBY:AND SO it has come to pass, an All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park, albeit with an oval-shaped ball. Munster will assuredly carry the favourites tag on Saturday, May 2nd in what will undoubtedly be another epic day as this extraordinary Irish season continues apace. But that's for another day. Yesterday belonged to Irish rugby again, writes GERRY THORNLEY, Rugby correspondent

After another veritable feast of rugby, an Irish presence is guaranteed in the final at Murrayfield on May 23rd after sharply contrasting Easter Sunday wins. Munster all but obliterated the Ospreys in front of a raucous, sun-drenched capacity 26,000 Thomond Park by 43-9, whereas Leinster had to get down and dirty to eke out a 6-5 quarter-final win over Harlequins at The Stoop.

Leinster will be competing in their fourth semi-final, and first since the so-called mother of all Irish derbies at the same stage four seasons ago, when the Red Army invaded Dublin and took over Lansdowne Road, obtaining about two-thirds of 47,800 tickets, as their team swept to a 30-6 win en route to reaching their holy grail for the first time.

The Thomond Park crowd were informed within moments of the full-time whistle that tickets (probably 10,000 at most) immediately went on sale on Ticketmaster yesterday evening and it is anticipated that each province will receive around 27-28,000 tickets each, with the remainder of the 80,000 capacity being set aside from premium season ticket holders, sponsors and so forth.

A day later, the Heineken Cup will endeavour to break new ground by also filling out the 76,000 Millennium Stadium when Cardiff host Leicester. Whatever about that one, the first semi will not be a hard sell.

Munster are now 4 to 6 favourites to lift the trophy for a third time in four years, whereas Leinster are the outsiders at 7 to 1, with Leicester at 4 to 1 and Cardiff at 9 to 2, while Munster are 2 to 7 to progress to the final and Leinster are 5 to 2 after the holders completed the fourth biggest quarter-final win in the tournament’s history and their biggest in the knock-out stages.

By contrast, Leinster resourcefully and resolutely defended two Felipe Contepomi penalties in the first half, as ultimately Chris Malone failed to convert Mike Brown’s 66th-minute try in a see-sawing game in which chances went abegging and were somehow denied.

Typified by the brilliant defiance of Rocky Elsom and Brian O’Driscoll, it was the kind of win which would have been deemed beyond Leinster in the past. But as Michael Cheika immediately conceded, they will have to up their performance considerably when going toe-to-toe with the champions, who completed a Magners League double at an aggregate of 40-5 barely a week ago.

“We need to go up another level. Obviously that was a tough game and we just scraped by, and we understand the challenge that we’re going to be coming up against in a couple of weeks, so we’ve got to improve that again. We’ll set the ice on some of the bruises from today’s matches.”

Cheika and the Leinster bench were incensed by the sight of Harlequins’ Tom Williams leaving the pitch with a dodgy blood injury to allow New Zealand outhalf Nick Evans return to the pitch. In the event, Evans missed a 79th minute drop goal attempt – justice of a sort.

The only apparent downside for Munster, on the evidence of yesterday’s relatively bloodless coup, was that the semi-final can’t come soon enough. The dogs of war led the way up front, with David Wallace pumping his legs in contact as only he can, Paul O’Connell dominating the air and Jerry Flannery giving a passable impression of a bulked up Duracell bunny, before the dancers cut loose.

Paul Warwick, in a virtuoso performance from fullback after resolving his immediate future with Munster, augmented the breakthrough try with two searing drop goals in a man-of-the-match performance, before O’Connell’s well-worked 56th minute try put the Ospreys to the sword. It only remained for Keith Earls to bag a quick-fire brace, the first of them created by Lifeimi Mafi’s wondrous offload – which could stand up to repeated viewing.

“When it gets to the semi-final stages there’s no such thing as an easy game,” said Tony McGahan, both diplomatically and truthfully. “It is, however, a great reflection on the way we run the game in this country that two Irish sides are contesting a Heineken Cup semi-final. We’ll just enjoy the evening and before we contemplate the semi-final we have two hugely important Magners League games, beginning with Connacht next week and we’ll turn our focus to that in the morning.”

Looking ahead to the possibility of playing Leinster in a semi-final, Ronan O’Gara spoke revealingly of how different Munster’s approach will be to not only that semi-final, but any of their previous seven. “In ’06 there was probably a huge focus on that game. I think the way we think is we’re obviously having a double campaign. That would be new to us.

“Before we’ve been wrapped in cotton wool and not done anything between now and the semi-final. It will be very interesting to see what approach Tony takes but I would say I’ll be playing – well the squad will obviously keep going and there’ll be massive competition for places and the focus will just be on that game. There’ll be five days preparation and then move on to the next task.”

They are men on a mission. But in three weeks’ time, standing in their way, are the champions’ most familiar foes of all, and desperately seeking their first ever final. It should be some day.