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Edinburgh stun Toulouse

Edinburgh - Edinburgh shocked four-times winners Toulouse 19-14 to become the first Scottish side through to the Heineken Cup semi-finals and a first-half blitz took holders Leinster past Cardiff 34-3 on Saturday.

A resilient defence when Edinburgh were reduced to 13 men in the first half following two yellow card offences in three minutes and the boot of Greig Laidlaw proved too good for the visiting French side.

"We are absolutely over the moon," said Edinburgh flyhalf and Man of the Match Laidlaw, whose conversion of Mike Blair's opening try after 90 seconds had the home fans jumping for joy.

"The players put in a great shift out there. We struggled in the first half with 13 men but we managed to stay in the game and I think that won us the game," he added on the Heineken Cup website (www.ercrugby.com).

Toulouse led 14-7 approaching hal- time courtesy of a Timoci Matanavou try and three Lionel Beauxis penalties before Laidlaw's boot, with a drop goal on 38 minutes and three second-half penalties, sent them through.

"We didn't show everything we can do against Toulouse and there is plenty still to work on, as well as a lot to look forward to," said Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley

In Dublin, two tries either side of the interval by Rob Kearney and the unerring kicking of Jonathan Sexton set Leinster on their way to a 27-point first half which included tries for Isa Nacewa and Brian O'Driscoll.

Cardiff opened the scoring after two minutes when Leigh Halfpenny kicked his side's only points of a frustrating encounter.

"We are happy with some parts of the game but we didn't really put our foot down in the second half," said Leinster forward Cian Healy, whose team will face either England's Saracens or French side Clermont Auvergne.

Irish duo Munster and Ulster also meet on Sunday, with the winner to play Edinburgh in Dublin.

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