It's all-French as Biarritz edge Munster
Sun, 02 May 2010 18:24
Six of the best: Man of the Match Dimitri Yachvili kicked six penalties for Biarritz
Biarritz made sure that the 2009/10 season - already dominated by France's Six Nations Grand Slam earlier this year - would also produce an all-French Heineken Cup Final, when they beat Munster 18-7 in a closely-contested semifinal clash in San Sebastian on Sunday.
The visitors scored the only try of the match - through outside centre Keith Earls - but the home side maintained their composure and discipline throughout as French international scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili landed six penalty goals to put his team through to the final against Toulouse.
Biarritz will now meet the Toulousains in an all-French May 22 final at the Stade de France, after the three-time champions defeated reigning champions Leinster 26-16 on Saturday (in the first of the weekend's French-Irish clashes) to reach their sixth European Cup trophy match.
Toulouse, of course, were the inaugural champions in 1996 since when they have added two crowns - in 2003 and 2005 - while they lost the 2004 and 2008 finals to Wasps and Munster, respectively.
Biarritz - who called on a masked Imanol Harinordoquy, because of a broken nose suffered playing Sebastien Chabal's Racing Metro in Top 14 action last week - were strongly favoured to get past the Irish Province. But, until Yachvili was allowed opportunity to find his range, it was Munster who were quickest out of the blocks.
After a patchy opening by both sides Irish centre Keith Earls went over on 28 minutes, set up by lock Donncha O'Callaghan, and Ronan O'Gara converted for a 7-0 lead and the game's only try.
But a Yachvili penalty deficit reduced the arrears moments before the interval after Biarritz piled the pressure on the visitors' scrum with prop John Hayes penalised.
Three minutes after the restart the boot of Yachvili was again unerring, bringing the Basques to within a point of parity against a side who saw off Sunday's hosts in their previous meeting in the 2006 final.
The Irish also lifted the trophy two years later - but this time, Yachvili's accuracy was their downfall. His trusty boot swung the hosts into a 64th-minute lead with a third penalty after O'Gara had first missed the target for the Irish as an ambitious effort from just inside his own half fell short.
Having seen his men get their noses in front Harinordoquy, visibly suffering with a knock to the ribs, went off on 66 minutes, giving way to Florian Faure.
Yachvili then promptly kicked three more penalties in the last eight minutes to see off the final vestiges of Irish resistance.
"This is very emotional - we left everything out there," said Yachvili afterwards.
"I am very proud we'll be able to take everyone up to Paris for the final.
"We were in a bit of bother in the first half - but we realised that our mental strength, solidity and team spirit could get us through and we proved our mettle," the Man of the Match told French television.
Harinordoquy expressed similar sentiments, saying: "The lads did a fantastic job - group spirit brought us through. We want to win it now as Toulouse have been champions before and we haven't."
Biarritz - who included English trio Iain Balshaw, Ayoola Erinle and Magnus Lund in their starting XV - were doubly happy to have Harinordoquy in their ranks for the bulk of the encounter, having lost influential centre Damien Traille after he injured his right forearm in a recent league loss to Clermont. That injury is set to rule him out of the final.
Munster, meanwhile, missed British & Irish Lions skipper Paul O'Connell with groin trouble, as well as former All Blacks winger Doug Howlett and Ian Dowling, meaning call-ups for Lifeimi Mafi and Denis Hurley, respectively.
The scorers:
For Biarritz:
Pens: Yachvili 6
For Munster:
Try: Earls
Con:
O'Gara
The teams:
Biarritz: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13 Arnaud Mignardi, 12 Ayoola Erinle, 11 Jean-Baptiste Gobelet, 10 Karmichael Hunt, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Wenceslas Lauret, 6 Magnus Lund, 5 Trevor Hall, 4 Jerome Thion (captain), 3 Campbell Johnstone, 2 Benoît August, 1 Eduard Coetzee.
Replacements: 16 Romain Terrain, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Rémy Hugues, 19 Manuel Carizza, 20 Florian Faure, 21 Valentin Courrent, 22 Julien Peyrelongue, 23 Philippe Bidabe.
Munster: 15 Paul Warwick, 14 Liefemi Mafi, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Denis Hurley, 10 Ronan O'Gara (captain), 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 James Coughlan, 7 David Wallace, 6 Alan Quinlan, 5 Mick O'Driscoll, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Julien Brugnaut, 18 Tony Buckley, 19 Nick Williams,
20 Niall Ronan, 21 Peter Stringer, 22 Tom Gleeson, 23 Scott Deasy.
Referee: Dave Pearson
AFP
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