[caption id="attachment_67907" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Munster's Paul O'Connell on the attack against Northampton Saints."]
FORGET the World Cup. If you want real excitement, fiercely competitive matches and pulsating finishes there is surely no better rugby competition than the Heineken Cup.
Last weekend's opening round had all of those ingredients in spades with the Irish provinces playing a major role. And no three players were more influential than the respective Munster, Leinster and Ulster out-halves Ronan O'Gara, Jonny Sexton and Ian Humphreys.
Sexton got Saturday's matches off to a great start with a superb performance in helping Leinster earn a 16-16 away draw with the French Championship finalists Montpellier. His penalty from wide out earned Leinster a draw with the final kick of the game.
That sort of finish, you would have thought, could not be outdone. Only it was in the most remarkable circumstances at Thomond Park when Munster trailed Northampton 21-20 the match clock called full time.
So, on the next occasion that play broke down the match was over. But unbelievably Munster managed a 41-phase drive that eventually gave O'Gara a shot at a drop goal.
In those circumstances, no one does it better than O'Gara. His astonishing mental strength was there for everyone to see as he stuck his kick over from 45 meters to add to Munster's list of amazing late Thomond Park victories.
It's hard to emphasize just how important his effort was. Had he missed, Munster could have been in real trouble in what is a hugely competitive pool also involving Llanelli Scarlets and Castres.
Now though they have four crucial home points in the bag and their confidence is up.
The confidence factor is huge given that they failed to make the quarter-finals last season and also lost at Thomond Park to Harlequins in the European Challenge Cup.
Credit must go to coach Tony McGahan. Already without the injured David Wallace and Keith Earls, he made some big calls in his pack by omitting Donacha O'Callaghan and Denis Leamy.
But the players brought in did really well, particularly the highly rated flanker Peter O'Mahony. It was just as well because this was a pulsating match hugely enjoyed by the capacity 26,000 crowd.
Northampton, last year's beaten finalists, must have felt they did enough to have come away with a victory.
They scored two tries through England wing Chris Ashton and former Leinster man James Downey and played a lot of good rugby. But Munster, who got two tries of their own from Damien Varley and Dougie Howlett, just would not go away.
Former All-Black wing Howlett characterized what they were all about with a fantastic solo try and a great overall performance. Inevitably though, most of the talk was about O'Gara afterwards.
"Where do you stop?" stressed McGahan. "It was an amazing kick at the end of 80 minutes of what was a fast-paced game. He put his hand up and said he wanted to do it, and it was one of the sweetest strikes we've seen for a long time."
Next up for Munster is a visit to French side Castres who lost 31-23 away to Llanelli Scarlets in their opening pool game. But playing away to a top French side is never easy.
Leinster can confirm that after their 16-16 draw with Monpellier. Faced by hugely physical opposition, the Leinster team missing Brian O'Driscoll, Shane Horgan and Cian Healy, looked sure to lose out for much of this match.
When French international Francois Trinh-Duc put over a second half penalty to make it 16-6, there seemed little hope for Leinster. But, inspired by Sexton, they produced a wonderful last quarter to gain a deserved share of the spoils.
The crucial moment was when substitute hooker Sean Cronin displayed his pace and strength to get over for a try with 15 minutes left. Sexton converted from the touchline to reduce the deficit to 16-13.
From there on it was a case of Leinster pressure that was eventually rewarded with Sexton's dramatic late equalizing penalty. Coach Joe Schmidt was delighted with his efforts, commenting: "Johnny is really pivotal to what we do. His ability to organize the guys around him was crucial."
O'Gara kicked 13 points for Munster, while Sexton's boot was responsible for 11 points for Leinster. But Ian Humphreys went even better, scoring all of Ulster's points in their 16-11 Ravenhill victory over crack French out Clermont Avergne in Pool Four.
That included a match-wining try 11 minutes from the end after Ulster had trailed 11-9.
Besides Humphreys, the Ulster forwards played a big part in the victory with the impressive Irish flanker Stephen Ferris setting the trend throughout.
Although Connacht lost their opening Pool Six Heineken Cup encounter 25-17 away to Harlequins, they performed exceptionally well. In fact, they outscored the current English Premiership leaders by two tries to one with wing Tiernan O'Halloran and full-back Gavin Duffy going over.
In the end, it was only the accurate goalkicking of former All Black Nick Evans that saw Harlequins home. Connacht had every right to feel disappointed that they didn't at least come away with a losing bonus. But, importantly, their performance does provide them with a major boost before they take on the might of Toulouse at the Sportsground next Saturday.
Crossmaglen inch towards decider
UNSURPRISINGLY, Crossmaglen Rangers are again right there in the mix as the battle intensifies for the All-Ireland Club SFC title.
The reigning champions defeated Ballinderry 0-17 to 1-10 at Casement Park to move into yet another Ulster decider. But it was far from easy with the Derry side staging a fine second half comeback after being reduced to 14 men following the sending off of Martin Harney for a second yellow card just before half-time.
In fact, a Conleth Gilligan penalty brought them to within a point of their rivals after 50 minutes but Crossmaglen duly raised their game with three late points to make sure of victory. The Kernan brothers Stephen, Aaron and Tony contributed 10 points between them, while Oisin McConville was responsible for four.
Crossmaglen will now face either Burren from Down or Monaghan's Latton in the Ulster final. Burren beat Roslea from Fermanagh by 1-15 to 2-5 in their quarter-final, while Latton recorded a 0-10 to 0-9 upset victory over Donegal champions Glenswilly.
In Leinster, it looks as if Dublin champions St Brigid's are going to take some stopping. They strolled to a 2-15 to 0-11 Leinster SFC first round Navan success over Summerhill from Meath.
It was all over after Ken Kilmurray and Barry Cahill scored first half goals for St Brigids. The Dublin outfit, inspired by Paddy Andrews, had far too much pace and power for their rivals.
Elsewhere, Athy, Portlaoise and Garrycastle also advanced. Kildare's Athy got the better of Offaly's Edenderry by 1-8 to 1-5, Garrycastle from Westmeath demolished Longford Slashers 4-11 to 1-6 and Portlaoise saw off St Patrick's by 2-12 to 1-14 after extra-time.
Portlaoise, in fact, made life difficult for themselves when substitute Brian Mulligan was sent off. From then on, Louth's St Patrick's were in with a real chance of causing an upset at O'Moore Park.
The shock result was very much on when a Karl White goal put St Patrick's ahead in the first period of additional time. But Portlaoise hit back with a penalty from Craig Rogers to bring his side level.
The sides were still level with two minutes remaining. It was then that the Portlaoise corner-back Cahir Healy surged upfield to score a point and earn the home side a thrilling victory.
There was, however, a major upset in the Wicklow SFC final where St Mary's beat the defending champions Rathnew by 2-5 to 0-10 at Aughrim. Two first half goals from Paddy Byrne proved decisive.
Coolderry upset
Ballyboden St. Enda's
OFFALY'S Coolderry will be somewhat surprising finalists in the Leinster Club SHC after deservedly beating Dublin's Ballyboden St Enda's by 1-18 to 0-15 at Parnell Park.
It had been anticipated that Ballyboden St Enda's would be very hard to beat at the Dublin venue but Coolderry had quite a bit to spare at the finish. Interestingly, the Ballyboden manager Liam Hogan is a native of Coolderry and was involved on the last occasion they played in a provincial decider.
So, he can't have been all that surprised that they should produce such a good performance. Hogan said: "Credit to Coolderry. We started well but gave away some silly frees. Overall, they were the better them."
There could be no arguments. The Offaly champions produced an impressive brand of hurling with full-forward Cathal Parlon striking six points from play.
They will now face the highly rated Wexford champions Oulart-the-Ballagh in the November 11 final. Oulart-the-Ballagh, however, had to battle all the way to see off the challenge of Laois outfit Clough-Ballacolla 3-12 to 2-11 at Wexford Park.
Six points ahead at half-time, Oulart were brought down to earth when their opponents scored 1-2 within the opening three minutes of the second half. Subequently, it was a thrilling battle with Oulart needing a Rory Jacob goal and a late free from Eoin Moore to eventually shake off their rivals.
In Munster, Na Piarsaigh from Limerick and Clare's Crusheen will contest the decider. Na Piarsaigh had to come from 0-11 to 0-4 down to upset Waterford's Ballygunner by 3-9 to 0-12 at Walsh Park.
A three-goal burst saw Na Piarsaigh home. Two of them came from the man-of-the-match Shane Dowling who finished with 2-4.
It was hard on Ballygunner who had looked the better side for most of the game. In the other semi-final, Crusheen also produced an excellent second half performance to get the better of Cork's Carrigtwohill by 0-19 to 1-10 at Pairc Ui Chaoimh. So, it will be a Limerick-Clare final at a venue to be decided on November 27.
Brawl to be
investigated
THE Tyrone Board will make a full investigation following a brawl at the Division One football league final between Carrickmore and Dromore.
The fighting that broke out between players at the Dunmoyle ground spilled over into the crowd. It lasted almost 10 minutes and two of the Carrickmore were shown straight red cards as a consequence of the on-field disturbance.
Breen wins big in Wales
CRAIG BREEN from Waterford won five of the six stages in Wales to snatch the World Rally Championship Academy title.
The reward for the talented 21-year-old is a €500,000 winner's check. Importantly, that provides him with a major opportunity to make an impression at the very top level in the sport.
