On taking down Sale and sinking Bath

European Cup: Gerry Thornley listens to tales from the pitch and the terrace following the European Cup heroics of Leinster and Munster last weekend

The weekend that was, and what a weekend it was. It may or may not have been the best ever in the Heineken European Cup, but there have surely been few better, if any. Stories recounting it, from Munster captain Anthony Foley through Robbie O'Connor, the chairman of the Leinster Supporters' Club to Will Green, Leinster's tighthead making a return trek to England, probably scarcely scratch the surface.

FRIDAY

Anthony Foley: "We met up at 5.45pm at Thomond Park for the captain's run. There was a lot of giddiness and it was hard to control the excitement. Normally the captain's run would take about three quarters of an hour to an hour, but we did it in 25 to 30 minutes. Everybody was sharp and the brains were switched on.

"That night in the Clarion Hotel myself, Deccie, Rog (Ronan O'Gara), Paulie (Paul O'Connell), Micko (O'Driscoll) and Stephen Keogh went through all the permutations. If Paulie was off, Micko would be on, and if I was off, Stephen would be on, so everybody would be aware of the situation. What would we do, for example, if we had a kick to draw late on? Would 20 points be enough? We decided it probably wouldn't but we worked out every possibility."

Robbie O'Connor: "Quite a lot of us took the Dublin-Bristol Ryanair at 4.30. We'd arranged a cab to pick us up and I went straight to the hotel, checked in, and straight down to the pub where there was a posse awaiting. A big gang of us had a meal out to celebrate James Campbell's birthday, and as a party piece he sang: Father Abraham had seven sons. Seven sons had Father Abraham It became the theme song of the weekend, and by Sunday night we were sick of it. We partied into the early hours."

SATURDAY

Foley: "With a 5.15pm kick-off there's a lot of time to kill. We got out of bed at around 10.30 or 11.0, and met up for a few lineouts in the scrapyard. You just want to get to the final whistle. The nerves are unreal. This is your Heineken Cup on the line. Lose and you're out. It's a scary place to be."

O'Connor: "Up early as a few of us headed down to Llanelli for the Toulouse match. We were just disappointed that Trevor (Brennan) didn't get a game.

"Actually we nearly got Trevor killed. When we arrived on the terraces Trevor was holding a tackle pad and we shouted out 'Go on, Trevor'. He looked up just as one of his team-mates hit him and sent him flying. But what a game.

"I left them in Llanelli to make it back to Bath to see the Munster match, but the train was cancelled. The majority watched it in the centre of Bath. There was the usual bit of slagging, and one or two even bought Sale shirts, but I'd say every one of us was delighted for Munster. Scratch the surface and I'm sure deep down every Leinster supporter would want Munster to qualify and vice versa."

Foley: "We left the hotel at about 3.35pm. The terraces were already filling up one-and-a-half hours before kick-off. The fellas who would be relatively new to this see how much it means to the supporters. We had a walk around the pitch to get a sense of the conditions.

"At times it was quiet in the dressingroom, but that's no bad thing. You sense everybody's focused.

"It took me two goes to do the toss, I was so nervous. Joel (Jutge, the referee) has red and blue marks on his coins and I remembered in the first game calling red and it turned up blue. This time Jason (Robinson) called blue and it came up red. I decided to play into whatever elements there were because our information was if anything it was going to get stronger.

"From the kick-off I got hit by about four fellas. The intensity of the first half was unbelievable and we made them feel like any team that comes to Thomond Park for a Heineken Cup match. When Paulie got Sebastian Chabal from the restart at 3-3 and drifted him back it gave everyone a great lift. For them to see their talisman hit like that had them looking around to see who would carry the ball for them, and not too many fellas put their hands up.

"By half-time we had three tries. For the first, our maul split. Normally, Jerry (Flannery) would carry the ball but he gave it back to me and we got some momentum. I could see the line and I just wanted to make sure Joel could see me grounding it.

"For the second we took them through a number of phases. The introduction of Barry (Murphy) and Ian (Dowling) has given us new options. Ian is very hard to put down and Barry tends to stick to the defenders; there's no drifting off him. The backs put it through the hands and Ian went low like all good wingers. To gather the ball the way he did and to back himself against the pace of Jason Robinson in a sprint, you've got to take your hat off to him.

"Half-time was initially very quiet, as it usually is. Some boys got iced, we took on drinks and then gathered all the information. Deccie, Steady (Graham Steadman), Brian (Hickey), Jim Williams and Paul McCarthy all spoke; then we went into a huddle. We knew what we had to do, we didn't want to let them back into the game with three-pointers, and we were conscious that with another try we'd go ahead of them in the pool."

Will Green: "Our flight from Dublin to Cardiff had been booked in advance at 5pm so we couldn't watch the Munster match, but we were kept up to date by text, and knew on landing they were three tries up. To be honest, we weren't that surprised when we heard they'd won with the bonus point to top the pool. If anyone can do something like that, it's that lot at Thomond Park."

Foley: "It was touch and go. They were playing like a team in the lead, putting the ball in behind us or going through the phases, which was unusual against a side who you're three scores ahead of. Joel had lost his watch, which was a bit unusual. So we had to get Damien "Chopper" Mendis, our fitness guy, and Jim Williams running on with water bottles. There were six minutes to go including injury-time. We worked our way up the pitch and when Wally (David Wallace) scored we knew there were still three or four minutes left. We went nuts for about 30 seconds, then Deccie used a lot of subs to take the sting out of things, add a bit of enthusiasm and get us go-forward, which the boys did.

"The crowd wanted us back out on the pitch, and we did it reluctantly. We've done this before and we've still no trophy to show for it. We want to win it and celebrate it with our fans then. I said a few words, which I hate doing, and then we sang a song."

Green: "We went by coach from Cardiff to the Hilton in Bath. I've stayed there a few times with Wasps and it's perfect, right in the thick of things and close to the ground. It was pretty chilled out there and when a few of us went for a walk I bumped into a couple of injured Bath players, Lee Best and Ben Sturnham, which was funny. They were heading off into the night but we had a few other things on our minds."

O'Connor: "More alcohol was consumed, and plenty of it. We met a few of the players walking around, Adam Byrnes, Cameron Jowitt, Ronnie McCormack and Gordon D'Arcy. They seemed fairly relaxed. I'd say we were more nervous than the players. It was a crazy session."

Foley: "We went back to the hotel to a room for partners and family, had a bit of food, watched the match on a big screen. Later, the singles went to one area and the married guys to another. Myself and Olive went to Claw's. Town was mad, and it was good to let the hair down for once. Went back to the hotel for the night."

SUNDAY

O'Connor: "I had to up bright and early again as I had to organise the bodhráns, and other bits and pieces. Johnny O'Hagan (Leinster kitman) had brought them over for us. I've a nice bottle of cognac for him. The Leinster Supporters' Club banner is made of a quite heavy vinyl and there was nowhere to put it up at the Rec; it's not like the Munster one where the fans can roll it over their heads.

"Some of us had arranged to meet some Bath fans we've got to know over the last couple of years for lunch. They're really genuine rugby supporters and there's even talk of an annual pilgrimage now. We got to the ground about an hour and a half beforehand to get a good view on the terraces and just before kick-off launched into Father Abraham to get us in a singing mood."

Foley: "There was a lot of sport to watch and it was easier to watch it at home. I turned on the teletext and saw that Perpignan had five tries after 52 or 56 minutes, and only need four more. It looked like we might be heading to Barcelona, but Calvisano kept them down to six. So then it was down to Leinster beating Bath by more than seven points."

Green: "We knew that if won, with or without a bonus point, we'd qualify in eighth place and we'd be playing Toulouse, and that was the joy of it. When you think you have to score four tries or score a certain amount of points it can mess you up. At Wasps last season we mucked up in Biarritz and in hindsight learned that a win would have been enough. It was black and white.

"There was a good buzz and, despite missing the previous week with a rib injury which has been at me for a while, I felt really good on my first game back in England. We had a team meeting and walked to the ground at 1.30pm, without piling on to a coach, which is a great thing to do. It gives you a real flavour of the atmosphere.

"We trained on the cricket pitch at the back and then Checks (Michael Cheika) had us walk back on to the pitch. The Leinster supporters were in three blocks and it was really cool to have a lot of support, unlike a Celtic League match, say, in Llanelli. In England supporters can hop on a motorway and drive to away games."

O'Connor: The game kicked off and it didn't take us long to get hyped up with the early try. I've never seen anything like it at a rugby game involving Leinster. At one stage when Leinster players were putting it through the hands we were even chanting: 'Olé, Olé.' Then later: 'Are we Fiji in disguise?'

Green: "Our first 20 minutes was brilliant. We were clinical; that's what was most pleasing. We were technically very good, which is where we've been trying to improve. I've learnt an awful lot in the last six months, as much as in the previous six years, probably. I've changed my scrummaging technique under the guidance of Roly Meates and Mike Brewer. When you have 125 kilos alongside you and behind you in Trevor Leota and Simon Shaw perhaps you don't work on your technique as much.

"I'm not sure if the first try, from a tapped penalty by Felipe (Contepomi) inside our own 22, was a backs' move; I'm not too familiar with them. But it's definitely the policy to keep the game moving. It was pretty ballsy, but that's the way we play.

"Then came my try. I enjoyed that. I do like to go on those runs. To be honest, they're cheating lines, but sometimes they come off. Reggie (Corrigan) was pretty chuffed. Frontrowers don't score very often and when we do we're always chuffed for each other.

"At half-time, everybody was focused. We'd fallen off a little in the second quarter. We tried to score off first phase and spoke about building our phases again and breaking them down; tighten up a few things. It wasn't too chaotic.

"Drico's magic set up Shaggy (Shane Horgan) for a try and then he scored one himself. By then I was off the field. I'd popped a ball to Jamie in the corner beforehand but we'd been called back for a forward pass by Denis (Hickie). I felt like an idiot celebrating it with the Leinster fans. I didn't know my parents and my sister were in that section, but I got some slagging later.

"But it was a very good day all round; the best I've known so far since coming to Leinster. I was getting stitched up when Bath came back at us but the boys were aware they needed to keep them out to get Munster a home quarter-final. We're delighted for Munster. Let's hope we get an all-Ireland cracker in the semi-finals.

Foley: "Leinster blew Bath away in the first half. It was unbelievable to watch some of the tries they scored. But the last few minutes were unbearable and I flicked over to watch some of United against Liverpool. Bath were throwing it about and I've seen that happen before, when a team is taking a hammering but then gets a bit of momentum and starts getting all the penalties. But Leinster scrambled well and gave us a home quarter-final in Dublin."

O'Connor: "When Bath came back at us, unlike in previous years, there was never a doubt in our minds that Leinster would hold them out. When the PA announcer confirmed the quarter-finalists we realised we'd done Munster a favour. Maybe when we meet them in the semi-finals they'll return the favour and roll over and die. Somehow I doubt it. But it just made the day that little bit more special and it's always handy to have a little bit of ammunition for the Munster fans."

Green: "We had a few drinks after the game and flew home from Bristol. With all this professionalism you need to do that; it can get all-consuming. That's my view of it anyway. But all the hard work since June paid off on a cold day in Bath in January."

O'Connor: " I had to gather up all the bodhráns before I headed into The Saracens' Head nearby. It was a fantastic night. It was an incredible atmosphere, with children from 11 or 12 to pensioners there. The whole pub was just hopping and the Bath people were truly magnanimous.

"Some flew from Bristol on the Monday. I flew out late on Sunday. It's already crazy for the quarter-final. I've no doubt it will be the biggest away Leinster support ever. With Trevor being the legend that he is, the De Danu will be the epicentre of Toulouse. I'm half-expecting him to announce his retirement the following Monday and move to the Cayman Islands."