Heineken Cup Semi-finals decided

A weekend of surprises has seen the end of all Irish and French involvement in this year's Heineken Cup - with the defending champions knocked out at the quarter-final stage for the second year in a row.

Friday night's game, at Stradey Park, saw group stage pace-setters Llanelli beat a Munster side left rudderless by the absence of captain Paul O'Connell.  A strong forward performance by the hosts, even pushing Munster off their own scrum ball at one point, sent them through by a 24-15 scoreline.  Leinster, also without their captain, took a real battering from a Wasps side who will be desperately hoping they can rescue a poor season  with a decent Heineken run.  35-13 was the final score as Ian McGeechan's men made it to the semi-finals.

Sunday's games were as bad for France as the previous ones had been for Ireland.  Leicester's victory over Stade Francais, secured by a late Tom Varndell try (crucially scored under the posts enabling Andy Goode to hit a simple conversion that gave the Tigers a 21-20 win) knocked out Stade Francais and secured Pat Howard's men a Walkers' Stadium semi-final against Llanelli.  More surprisingly, Northampton Saints helped their fans forget their side's bottom-of-the-table status at home - for 80 minutes at least - with a late Robbie Kydd try knocking out last season's runners-up Biarritz (7-6).  Saints will now face Wasps at Coventry's Ricoh Arena for a place in the final.