ALL ROADS lead to the south of France and Spain’s neighbouring Basque country en route to the Parisian denouement. The countries who have won the last two Grand Slams also provide two semi-finalists each in two French-Irish affairs. A Leinster-Munster final on May 22nd is just two games away, but two monumental games away at that, after Toulouse completed the last-four line-up by beating Stade Français yesterday to ensure they host the holders on May Day.

On a riotous weekend of packed houses and colours, with the volume turned on full blast, each of the four quarter-finals were crackers on another vintage Heineken Cup weekend which featured 19 tries, 224 points and reached temperatures, senses and parts that other competitions can only dream of.

Stade Français were yesterday denied a cherished final in Paris in true Toulousain offloading style, Patricio Albacete finishing off a contender for try of the season in their 42-16 win after Biarritz’s Takudrwa Ngwenya had done his latest impression of the Road Runner the day before.

Across the four games, experience counted and now pedigree abounds. Guy Noves’ three-time winners and five-time finalists are at this stage for the 10th time. For Munster this is a ninth Heineken Cup semi-final, and a fifth final beckons. But as the following suggests – Munster have four wins and four defeats at the semi-final stage, two wins and two defeats in the final, while Leinster have won one out of four semi-finals – now comes the tricky bit.

Toulouse and Leinster have met seven times, with Toulouse winning four of them, though in the sides’ only previous meeting in the knock-out stages Toulouse suffered their only loss in 14 matches at Le Stadium when Leinster won a memorable quarter-final 41-35.

Munster meet their old buddies from Biarritz in San Sebastien on Sunday, May 2nd. They beat the Basques at home in the quarter-final nine seasons ago and, of course, when reaching their Holy Grail in Cardiff in ’06. But they lost in the quarter-finals in the Estadio Anoeta five seasons ago.

Connacht’s nerve-jangling 23-20 win over Bourgoin at the Sportsground on Saturday set up a home semi-final on the same weekend in the Amlin Challenge Cup to complete an Irish, French, English, Welsh line-up. Maintaining the theme of the semi-final weekend, Connacht are pitted against Toulon (Jonny Wilkinson, Felipe Contepomi et al) who currently lie second in the Top 14 and beat the Scarlets by 38-12 on Saturday.

Leinster and Munster are liable to pick shadow backlines over the next weekend or two in the Magners League after Rob Kearney (ankle) and Ian Dowling (knee) were each helped off, and Jonathan Sexton (jaw), Gordon D’Arcy (leg), Brian O’Driscoll (knee), Shane Horgan (foot), Doug Howlett (hamstring), Lifeimi Mafi (shoulder) all reeled away from the weekend’s quarter-finals.

Sexton is the biggest concern, having played through much of Friday night’s win over Clermont with a fractured jaw which necessitated an operation on Saturday.

Munster’s array of injuries (Denis Hurley and Felix Jones are already sidelined) will become clearer today. This time a year ago, Munster were the defending champions and being hailed as the best team in Europe, whereupon the Lions tapped into their zeitgeist and they lost the semi-final to Leinster.

“Well, I suppose, since that semi-final loss to Leinster we have hit form sporadically, so in one way I’m kind of happy with that because after today, being honest, you have to know whether it is still within a team and I think we got the answer today. That’s what pleases me the most,” said Munster coach Tony McGahan.

“But going into the Leinster game people talked us up as the best team in Europe and I suppose you can fall into that trap of believing it a bit. The hungrier team caught us on the day – I’m not saying we weren’t hungry but they were hungrier.”

Things are hotting up nicely.

Heineken Cup semi-finals

Toulouse v Leinster

Le Stadium, Toulouse, Saturday, May 1st, 4:45pm (local time)

Biarritz Olympique v Munster

Estadio Anoeta, San Sebastian, Sunday, May 2nd - 4:15pm (local time)

Final- Saturday, May 22nd- 6pm (local time) Stade de France, Paris.

AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP SEMI-FINALS

Connacht Rugby v Toulon

London Wasps v Cardiff Blues

• To be played on the weekend of April 30th- May 1st, 2nd.