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Quarter going for Heineken treble

LEICESTER PLAYERS Martin Corry, Ben Kay, Lewis Moody and Geordan Murphy have all appeared in the club’s three previous Heineken Cup finals, in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

If selected for Saturday’s final against Leinster they will join a group of elite players who have played in four finals.

That set includes Munster’s Ronan O’Gara, John Hayes and David Wallace, and Yannick Jauzion, William Servat, Jean Baptiste Poux, Fabien Pelous and Jean Bouilhou from Toulouse.

Leicester have now matched Toulouse in qualifying for five tournament finals and will also have the opportunity this week of joining Toulouse as three-time winners of the title.

Four to the fore

DENIS LEAMY is heading to Canada with Ireland, while David Wallace travelled to London today to join up with the Lions tour. Neither will be involved in Saturday’s Heineken Cup final but the two backrows are in a group of four forwards who have scored in Heineken Cup finals.

Raphael Ibanez is the only frontrow to score on the big day, while Wallace and Leamy and Neil Back are the only backrows to have done so, Wallace in the 2000 final and Leamy 12 months ago.

Robbie remembers the tight old days

FORMER IRELAND player John Robbie – now a talk show host in South Africa – was commenting on the Heineken Cup semi-final between Munster and Leinster recently. He painted a picture of the old amateur days that wasn’t quite rose-tinted.

“It was the final game in the Irish provincial championship in 1981 and the winner between Leinster and Munster would be champions. It was at Thomond Park in Limerick and a big crowd approaching five thousand people had pitched up,” says Robbie. “I was the captain of the Leinster side and was furious when our jerseys were doled out. They were discoloured, ragged and mostly too small. Knowing it was the final game of the season and that, by tradition, we could keep them after the game, the tight bastards at the Leinster branch of the IRFU had given us an ancient set.”

Leicester have known the two days

THE COMMENTARY on Sky Sports for the weekend’s 81,000-plus Twickenham Premiership final, in which Leicester defeated London Irish, told us that 1,000 Munster fans were among the crowd cheering for ’Irish. The irony there was that while the Exiles had Blackrock’s Bob Casey captaining the team, Leicester had two Irish players involved. Geordan Murphy at fullback and captain and Naas man Johne Murphy on the wing started the match, with Johne going off injured after 21 minutes.

Leicester have been around for so long and have been so consistently successful in the Heineken Cup they are the team which has the most tries scored against them in a Heineken Cup final as well as being the team who have scored the most points in a final.

In 2001 Leicester beat Stade Français 34-30 in Parc des Princes, the 34 points being the highest number scored by a team in the final. But in the 1997 final, it was Leicester who were beaten, by Brive. The French team won 28-9 in Cardiff and ran in four tries, which is the most scored in a final.

Meads shaken but not Sirred by title

NEW ZEALAND’S greatest All Black Colin “Pinetree” Meads has agreed to accept his knighthood. But although he will hold the title he doesn’t want to be called “Sir”. The decision comes after New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced earlier this year that knighthoods would be reinstated from July for those people who have been made specific members of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Such titles were abolished in 1999 by the Labour Government.

The IRB Hall of Fame and New Zealand Sporting Hall of Fame member, Meads will, after consulting family take the title, but won’t be called “Sir”.

Cipriani resigned to Saxons place  

ENGLAND ARE set to reopen the debate over how best to handle Danny Cipriani by omitting the outhalf from their two-Test summer series against Argentina. The 20-year-old said over the weekend that he expects to be included in the second-string Saxons squad for the Churchill Cup in the US.

Cipriani, who by his own admission has only latterly started to rediscover his form after a painful autumn, is officially on standby for the Lions tour of South Africa. England, however, are expected to turn to Leicester’s Sam Vesty and, possibly, Northampton’s Stephen Myler when the squad is unveiled.

Despite official denials, there have been sharp exchanges between the player and certain England coaches and the team manager, Martin Johnson, seems to have decided that Cipriani needs bringing down a peg or two. Vesty and Myler are unselfish team men but neither possesses the attacking skills which Cipriani displayed on his first start for England, against Ireland 14 months ago. Guardian Service