And then there were four. And in a fairly remarkable sequence of groundbreaking firsts, three of them are Irish, two of the trio have earned home advantage, and one of that duo is Connacht, 500/1 outsiders at the outset who are now one more win at the Sportsground away from the final. Ye Gods.
That Munster completed a clean sweep in Saturday's final round with their bonus-point win over the Scarlets to thereby secure Champions Cup qualification with some degree of comfort also means that all four Irish provinces have finished in the top six for the first time ever and will compete in Europe's premier competition on merit.
So after a week's respite, Leinster host Ulster in the first semi-final on Friday, May 20th, with Connacht entertaining Glasgow Warriors again after Saturday's 14-7 win at the Sportsground earned home advantage against the holders and another 7,700-plus sell-out.
Magical
“I think it’s huge,” said a delighted Pat Lam. “We only lost one [home] game and that was in the 78th minute against Ulster and it still obviously bugs me, that one. The biggest thing is that we have also prided ourselves that we can win away. But when we get at home, there’s something magical about this place.
“I highlighted last week the quality of all of the teams. Eight teams are finished now, there’s four left; three are Irish and that’s fantastic for Irish rugby. It’s fantastic Munster’s made it through, I’m really, really pleased for them too.
“This is a good stepping-stone for all four teams, but it is a huge achievement [for us]. It would have been nice to be number one,” said Lam ruefully on finishing on the same points total as Leinster but second due to having one win less. “It’s nice to know we’re on the same points and we look at all of the close games that we could have won but the bottom line is, home semi-final is massive.”
The two-week turnaround ought to prove beneficial after Finlay Bealham and Rodney Ah You suffered head knocks which means they will have to go through the return-to-play protocols
“It’s going to be tough because they’ll take a lot out of today, but we’ll have a lot of confidence,” said Lam of the task in trying to beat Glasgow twice in a row. “We’ll go and enjoy our awards dinner and then we’ll get back to work next week.”
No away team has won a semi-final in five years and 10 attempts to date, and Gregor Townsend knows better than most the advantages of a home semi-final, his Warriors side having lost two away semi-finals before winning two at home. "We viewed today as a quarter-final. We wanted our supporters to get back home and the history of the competition shows that no one has won an away semi-final. That's a new challenge.
“The first thing is that we have to improve our discipline,” he admitted, and to that end their Tongan tighthead Sila Puafisi is likely to be suspended in light of the red card he suffered after 50 minutes for his headbutt on Kieron Marmion.
Flounder
Ulster have seen their league ambitions flounder at the RDS in the semi-finals of 2011 and 2014, as well as the final of 2013, and after securing their semi-final place with a six-try 42-26 win over the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium, Les Kiss commented: "Strewth, we have Leinster away and it becomes a tough ask. We have tried to work on our away form this season all year, and we are improving. But we have to make sure we have got it right."
