Cardiff looked dead and buried with 5 minutes left, but two magnificent tries, first from Roberts and then Tom James as well as incredible touch line conversions took the Heineken Cup Semi final to extra-time and ultimately a penalty shootout.

The Welsh side started the day looking to make history as the first Welsh region to reach a European Cup Final, and in front of 44,200 began the game well. Ben Blair landed the first points of the match, but only after the Blues lost captain Paul Tito in the opening exchanges.

Leicester's try hero from the Quarter Finals, Julien Dupuy, missed three attempts at goal, but the Tigers soon took the lead with a well taken try, Toby Flood's clever offload allowed winger Scott Hamilton to cross between the posts - Dupuy adding the extras.

Dupuy, having founds his range, slotted his sides first penalty, but three consecutive infringements allowed Cardiff back to 12-10 with minutes to go, Ben Blair slotted the first with Leigh Halfpenny landing two massive kicks. However the lead wouldn't last until half time, Nick Robinson being penalised following a horrible quick throw in, with the French scrum half restoring his side's advantage.

Half Time

Cardiff Blues 12
Leicester Tigers 13

The English side came out strong in the second half, and began to take control when Flood set up Geordan Murphy for his teams second.

Dupuy added the conversion, and soon struck twice more with penalty attempts to put his 14 points ahead.

Cardiff began to get their hands on the ball, and started playing with the attack and flair which had got them to this stage, Nick Robinson in particular throwing some wonderful passes to keep the Tigers defence on its toes.

With just over 20 minutes to go, Cardiff  finally looked like the side which has been playing so well of late, and when they broke into the Leicester 22, they had no answers but chating to keep the Blues at bay.

First, they lost Craig Newby for killing an attack that looked destined for the try, while 5 minutes later he was joined by Murphy, who also saw yellow for a blatant purpose knock on when Robinson looked to have set up Jamie Roberts.

With just 6 minutes left on the clock and Leicester back up to 14 men, the game was seemed dead and buried, but Robinson set Roberts free inside his own half. The centre ran straight at the Tigers defence, throwing a dummy pass to open up a gap in front of him, touching down for a tremendous solo score, but out on the left hand touchline with Cardiff needing two converted tries to take the game to extra time - Blair stepped up and slotted a fabulous effort to keep Dai Young's men in it, even if only just.

But out of nowhere, Cardiff found yet another try.

Leicester's kick off went to Jamie Roberts, who crashed through the first line and offloaded to Tom James. The winger looked to offload, but instead backed himself from just outside his 22, sprinting in at the corner for a sensational effort.

With the Millennium Stadium shaking with noise, the celebrations had to be put on hold as Blair stepped up for the touchline conversion, knowing a miss would definitely see his side crash out. But despite the immense pressure, he found the extras and the Stadium erupted, taking the game into extra time.

Final Score

Cardiff Blues 26
Tries: Roberts, James
Cons: Blair (2)
Pens: Blair (2), Halfpenny (2)

Leicester Tigers 26
Tries: Hamilton, Murphy
Cons: Dupuy (2)
Pens: Dupuy (4)

Extra time flew by with relatively little in the way of highlights, Johne Murphy the only man to even attempt a drop goal - his impressive half way line shot just faded wide.

Elsewhere, the referee arguably bottled giving either side a penalty, despite the numerous warnings, and instead the game went to a penalty shoot out for only the second time in history - the previous being a French Cup match over 20 years ago.

From here it was always going to be a lottery, and a horrible, horrible way to settle such an important match.

With Ben Blair, Leigh Halfpenny, Nick Robinson and Ceri Sweeney making it 4-3 to the Welsh region, Johne Murphy looked like he'd lost it for Leicester, missing their 4^th penalty attempt.

But tragically for him and all Blues fans, he skewed his effort wide, while Scott Hamilton scored to take it to sudden death, 4-4 after 5 kicks each.

Shanklin and Aaron Mauger both struck to keep the shoot out going, before Ritchie Rees nervously landed his ugly shot to pile the pressure back on Leicester.

Craig Newby, the first forward to step up, coolly truck his between the posts, but heartbreak followed as Martyn Williams put his shot wide - Of all the people who didn't deserve that, it was Martyn - Number eight Jordan Crane put the final kick over as the Tigers advance to face Leinster in the Heineken Cup Final.

Following the loss, Dai Young told BBC sport,

"I am pretty low. It was a horrible way to go out, but somebody had to win. Martyn is obviously really low, and Tom James, but we are not going to blame them. He has given so much to that jersey, and he is in tears in there now, I wish it wasn't Martyn. You win together and you lose together and there is no finger-pointing, but I really feel for someone like Martyn who has put in so much work to take this region forward."

He added,

"Nobody gave us a chance at the start of the season and hopefully we can maintain this now season after season. We didn't play to our potential but we showed how much it means to us the way we came back into it. We are very disappointed at the moment, but very proud of the players."

Blair, Halfpenny, Shanklin, J. Roberts, James, N. Robinson, Rees, Jenkins, G. Williams, Filise, Davies, Tito, Molitika, M. Williams, Rush.

Sweeney for J. Roberts (99), Yapp for Filise (80), D. Jones for Tito (9), A. Powell for Molitika (60).

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