Fortress France well-placed for European glory

LONDON - France looks well-placed to dominate the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup after its three remaining clubs emerged from the weekend's rugby action with home ties in the quarterfinals.

Toulouse, Biarritz and Stade Francais host Northampton, Munster and Newcastle respectively, with Leinster hosting Leicester in the fourth match on the weekend of April 2-3.

The French trio, along with Perpignan and Castres, won all their home games this season, making the task of the cross-Channel raiders even more testing.

"It's very difficult to prepare for French teams," said Leicester coach John Wells.

"The top French sides are tough nuts to break, you can prepare as much as you want, but at the end of the day if they turn up and want to play it's tough."

The last-eight lineup is a fair reflection of the current international status of the relative countries, with Six Nations champions France providing three teams, world champions England three, and Ireland two.

For the first time in the 10-year history of Europe's premier club tournament Wales will not have a representative in the last eight.

Scotland too, miss out after an abject campaign while Italy still await their first quarterfinalists.

It is no surprise to see Toulouse, twice champions and runners-up last year, go through on top of pool three, where they recovered from a 21-23 defeat by Northampton to beat the English side in the home fixture and take top spot with a three-point cushion.

The two sides meet again in the last eight where Northampton, struggling badly in the Premiership, will have to find something special to upset the tournament favourites.

French champions Stade Francais always looked likely to emerge from pool six but they did so in emphatic fashion by thumping Gloucester 27-0 on Sunday, handing the English team their first ever home defeat in the competition.

Stade will host Newcastle, who made it through for the first time when they overcame an injury crisis to beat the Newport-Gwent Dragons 25-17.

The most impressive performers in the pool stages, however, were Biarritz, who looked a long shot for progress when they were grouped with English powerhouses Leicester and Wasps.

With France back row trio Imanol Harinordoquy, Serge Betsen and Thomas Lievremont in spectacular form, however, they beat twice champions Leicester home and away and finished in style by ousting holders Wasps 18-15 on Saturday.

Munster will be the next team to try to stem the tide but even their remarkable European pedigree, this is their seventh successive quarterfinal, is unlikely to be enough to upset the Biarritz steam roller.

Leicester scraped through as the second of the two best runners-up, after Castres and Perpignan fluffed their lines on the final weekend, and will hope to make the most of their second chance at Leinster.

The Irishmen, led by national captain Brian O'Driscoll, were the only team to win all six games but none of their opponents in Pool Two, Bath, Treviso and Bourgoin, are in the class of Leicester, currently top of the English Premiership.

- REUTERS