Living in a Time Warp Munster 19 Wasps 3

When Greg rang with the arrangements he did say that he wasn't sure of the rugby times! We didn't check because there weren't many other options - Sunday morning wasn't going to work because Sheila was heading back top London on Sunday afternoon. But of course when we checked we discovered that we had Leicester V Leinster at 3.30 and Munster V Wasps at 5.30. Worse than that they were on Sky and Kevin (with all his fancy digital TV set-up) doesn't have Sky. In any event mass was at 6.15. Both Paul and I had the same plan - time warp!

We set up the TV to record the game - refused to listen to any radio or take any information input. When we arrived home at 8pm Mark (from Limerick) had just finished watching the match - I said "don't say anything - don't look at me - I don't want to see your expression!" So he left the room and we sat down from 8pm until 9.30 and watched the match. When you think about, it its strange to anticipate and outcome when you know you could find out in an instant - but once you get involved - in what was a very exciting match - its fine.

Howlett, originally uploaded by Clare Courier Gallery.

It was a day out of Angela's Ashes in Limerick also. It rained relentlessly through the match. Munster were always comfortable (on mature recollection!). They dominated the line-outs and that was a big help. Wasps, of course, were hit with injury and so it was easier than it should have been - but no game against Wasps is easy - even in Thomond Park.

Denis Leamy's Try, originally uploaded by Clare Courier Gallery.

A great result at 19-3, but the rankings showed at the end of the match that Munster were now in 5th position with Toulouse in 4th which if we got the wrong results on Sunday would mean that the quarter-final would be in Toulouse against Toulouse - not a great reward!

However as it finished out Cardiff were convincing against Bristol and so inched out Stade Francais and Cardiff pushed themselves into the 5th place leaving then with the dreaded Toulouse fixture and leaving Munster with a much better visit to Gloucester.

Gloucester were never in real danger against Ulster - but Ulster did run them close enough with a final result Gloucester 29 Ulster 21. This leaves us with a lot of hope for another semi-final for Munster.

Earlier Leinster needed a miracle in Toulouse and in Leicester - they got neither - it was a very competitive game in Leicester - though Leicester won easy in the end 25-9. Toulouse made no mistakes and hammered Edinburgh 34-10. The end result was that in Leinster's pool Toulouse managed to win one away game against Edinburgh, Leinster. Leicester and Edinburgh each lost all their away games.

In the Heineken cup format that is a disaster for the pool and usually means only one team from the group to qualify. The weakness in the Heineken pool system system is that whichever groups have the Italian teams has a high chance of getting a runner up slot - unless they have 3 equally strong teams. Though this year the Ospreys benefitted from having both Bourgoin and Ulster allowing them to claim the last place. Biaritz and an Glasgow were too close to each other to make it in the other Italian group (topped by Saracens).