Munster Blast Their Way to Quarters.

Munster became the second Irish side to make it to the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup thanks to a smashing 51-17 win over Harlequins at a packed Thomond Park. In the course of that victory they ran in six tries, three in each half, with John Kelly, Frank Sheehan, Anthony Foley, Dominic Crotty, Mick Galwey and finally Alan Quinlan, getting involved in the try-fest.

Munster led 23-10 at the end of a closely contested first half with Anthony Foley scoring a crucial third try in injury time of that period. Throughout that half and indeed the rest of the game, Mick O’Driscoll was simply immense but the accolade of Man of the Match went to his Cork colleague Jim Williams. And there were few who would argue with that decision because Williams had an awesome game.

It was his combination with Mick Galwey at the end of the opening half that finally broke Harlequins hearts. Williams took a ball at the tail of the line-out and swopped surges with captain Galwey that ended in the try for Foley.

That 13 point half time cushion was extended to 16 when Ronan O’Gara landed an early second half penalty and although Quins struck back with a second try from Tony Diprose, Munster just turned up the heat and blew the English side away.

They ended it with tries from Crotty, Galwey and Alan Quinlan, two of which were converted by O’Gara as Munster qualified for the knock out phases for the fourth successive year.