Excitement, Tension, Shock and Despair - Heineken Cup 2007 Semi-Finals are decided.

Llanelli Scarlets soundly swamped champions, Munster 24-15 on Friday night. Irish misery continued on Saturday when a powerful Wasps squad made mince meat of a BOD-less Leinster 35 - 13. Shock, horror for the French as underdogs and GP tail-enders Northampton Saints showed true grit by beating last years finalists, Biarritz 6-7 and finally Leicester Tigers made it three out of four for English clubs in the semi-finals with a nail biting 21 - 20 win over our pink friends, Stade Francais.

So, 75% home wins all round for this years quarter finals, but a great big RFTG 'WELL DONE' has to go to the boys from Northampton who defied the odds and worked their butts off to get a win that they so badly needed. They also had to contend with an away draw against the pool winners and the huge stadium was strangely quiet for the full 80 minutes.

Dewi Morris however attributed Saints win to the fact that Biarritz were 'dreadful' but it would be nice to give credit where credit is due Dewi - again!

Our RFTG on the spot reporter Preeti was present at the Wasps match and she will be bringing you an overview of the competition so far and more news about the guys.....but meanwhile, here's a short run down of this weekends matches, RFTG style - GREAT BIG GORGEOUS PICTURES

Leicester Tigers 21 - Stade Francais 20
Although Stade came away on the losing side, Juan Hernadez (above) looked very pretty in pink and also played a great game of rugby! He scored a magnificent try and managed to prevent the gorgeous 18 stone Alesana Tuilagi (above left) from scoring an equally spectacular one late on in the match. If you would like to see a different view of Juan, catch a glimpse of the Stade Francais site here. (Warning - don't go there unless you want to see naked rugby players!!!)

Once again, Harry Ellis (right) was a very brave boy and took a charge down right on the hooter - bless Harry - he got straight up and carried on, once the blood had stopped flowing. 


Wasps 35 - Leinster 13
Well Waspies, were you on fire or what! Alex King was the RFTG man of the match and we see him here travelling horizantally across the pitch after Leinster's Gordon D'Arcy - amazing!

RFTG favourite James Haskell came on in the second half and showed true flair and style and we thought he was involved in just about every ruck on the pitch.

Leinster were sadly lacking and were obviously missing their leader and figure head, Brian O'Driscoll who was doing his Elvis Costello impersonation from the stands - should have gone to spec savers!

Biarritz 6 - Northampton Saints 7
At last - Saints have something to smile about. A solid performance for 80 minutes gave them the win they deserved. Biarritz were slow and uninspiring and obviously thought Saints would be a pushover. Aha! The English (well nearly, with a bit of Southern Hemisphere added in plus a smattering of French) resolve shone through and the boys from the Midlands now need to grab hold of this win and take the confidence it has given them into the Guinness Premiership. We will see!


Robbie Kydd (above) scored Saint's try following an interception deep in Saint's half. He then took off like a bat out of hell and went the whole way, placing the ball as near to the sticks as possible so as to assist Saint's cursed fair weather kickers.

Robbie Kydd has been looked after by Saints following an injury sustained whilst he was playing for Saracens.He has played at full-back and centre for the Saints and signed for Northampton in January 2006. Since then he has become a regular in the Saints side and has made 20 starts this season. He has just signed a two-year extension to his contract so we hope to be seeing more of him.

Robbie was born in New Zealand in January 1982 but has recently been included in the Scottish National Squad.

Llanelli Scarlets 24 - Munster 15
Last years champions Munster were the first of the two Irish sides to leave the 2007 Heineken Cup this weekend. The match was fast and furious from start to finish and it was a joy to watch. Stephen Jones, Scarlets fly half, played magnificently as did Man of the Match, Alix Popham - the man with straw blonde hair and lots of it. Some of you my have seen Alix joining in with the Sky commentary team last week and it was good to see him minus mud and mouthguard (looking good in the jeans...).

Alix stands at 6'2" and weighs in at 17stone and regularly runs out for Wales.

Both Alix and Matthew Rees played like backs, even though they are in the pack, and the Scarlets delighted the home crowd with a performance of champions.

Munster struggled to get a hold on the match but continued to look dangerous throughout but there was no stopping Llanelli who were consistently driven forward to the sound of 'Bread of Heaven'.

Wasps will now meet Saints and Llanelli take on Leicester in the semi-finals. Great rugby to come!