Rugby
Edinburgh stun Toulouse
2012-04-07 19:05
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.