'Great occasions' ahead in Heineken
Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:07
Another big night: Northampton's Stephen Myler takes aim
Two-time champions Munster and the team that beat them in the 2000 European Cup final Northampton will be sick of the sight of each other after they were drawn to play each other in the last eight of this year's edition on Sunday.
Saints lead the Irish giants 2-1 on head to head meetings, the last victory being in their first pool match this season, but will be facing a mammoth task in trying to become only the second ever side - after Leicester - to triumph at Munster's Thomond Park fortress in the tournament's history.
Munster edged them 12-9 in the second pool clash in Limerick on Friday.
French side Biarritz may be struggling in the Top 14 domestic championship but their European Cup campaign carried on in triumphant fashion on Sunday when they ensured they hosted a quarter-final after beating Scottish outfit Glasgow 41-20 in their Pool Two clash.
Biarritz - beaten 23-29 by Munster in the 2006 final - joined defending champions Leinster and Munster in being guaranteed a home quarter-final in a draw that features four French sides for the first time since the 1998/99 edition.
However, their feat this time round is more impressive as back in 1998/99 English clubs boycotted the tournament.
This comes after they already faced each other in their pool this campaign with Northampton - England's sole survivor from the seven teams that started out, though two-time champions Leicester are appealing after Ospreys had 16 players briefly on the pitch during their clash Saturday - winning their first match.
Biarritz areas in previous years when they have played at home in the last eight to host the match against Ospreys, the only Welsh side left in the competition, over the Spanish border in San Sebastian at the Anoeta Stadium.
Ospreys have reached their third successive quarter-final but will be hoping to reach the last four for the first time and keep alive hopes of becoming the first Welsh side to lift the trophy.
So poor is the Welsh record that Cardiff are the only side to ever reach the final and that was the inaugural one when they lost 21-18 to Toulouse.
Biarritz joint-coach Jack Isaac said that he and his squad would not be taking anything for granted against Ospreys.
"I only know the Anoeta Stadium from the Basque derby match earlier this season against Bayonne," said Isaac.
"I know it will be a great occasion for our supporters to have a party.
"It will be a very complicated match against a star studded side (Ospreys).
"I hope that Anoeta will help us be stronger than usual."
Leinster - who played out a nerve-tingling 11-11 draw with London Irish on Saturday at Twickenham which was enough to see Northampton progress at the latter's expense - will host Clermont, who will be a real danger to the Irish side if they maintain their present form into April.
Three-time champions Toulouse displaced fellow French side Clermont as the fourth host when they beat English side Sale 19-13 later on Sunday in their Pool Five match.
Toulouse - who have won six of the seven quarter-finals they have hosted losing just to Leinster in 2006 - will play fellow Top 14 side Stade Francais, whose unimpressive campaign in an uninspiring pool saw them still top the table despite being beaten by Edinburgh in their final match on Saturday.
"We know Stade Francais, they drew at our place in this season's championship (9-9) and are extremely capable of beating us," conceded Toulouse manager Guy Noves.
"And should we progress we will play either the champions Leinster or the big favourite for the competition Clermont. This is a really tough draw for us."
Stade's flamboyant president Max Guazzini - who has yet to taste European glory despite investing millions into the club - was relieved to have ended a drought in terms of making the knockout stages.
"That is three years since we were last in the quarter-finals therefore we have no reason to complain about an away draw," said Guazzini.
"It's not going to be easy. Toulouse are a huge team, as we saw in their win over Sale on Sunday, they have already previously won the European Cup.
"We are at home to them at the Stade de France on March 6 in the championship a month before the European match, that will be quite something."
There are no Italian sides in the last eight - both Viadana and Treviso finished bottom of their respective pools, though the latter did beat French champions Perpignan in their first meeting.
However, once again the two best runners-up spots in the quarter-finals went to sides in the Italians' pools which will inevitably lead to the debate about the fairness of the qualifying rules being re-opened.
The matches are due to be played from April 9/11.
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