By Gary Watton
April 4 2015

Plucky Connacht narrowly succumbed to Gloucester on Good Friday night, thus ending their European adventure for this season. Although the away team produced a late rally in a desperate bid to overturn the fourteen-nil interval deficit, the Oirish team just left themselves a little too much to do against a resolute Gloucester defence.

Fortunately for Leinster, they were gifted five penalties in the first half by sloppy Bath, all of which were converted by the reliable Ian Madigan, leaving Leinster with the comfortable cushion of a 15-5 interval lead. The hosts also capitalised upon the first-half sin-binning of England's Anthony Watson for a dangerous tackle upon an airborne Rob Kearney. Ultimately, the home team held on grimly to their small margin and were outscored by two tries to nil. They now face the mighty Toulon in France on Sunday the 19th of April at 15:15, in the semi-finals. This is a bigger challenge than tackling Bath at home. One can only hope that the bigger the challenge, the greater the performance. Otherwise Leinster will be bidding an 'au revoir' to the tournament. At least the men in blue can congratulate themselves on defeating three notable English teams en route to the last four, namely Harlequins, Wasps, and finally Bath.

The results were as follows:

European Rugby Champions Cup

LEINSTER 15 Bath 12

European Rugby Challenge Cup

Gloucester 14 CONNACHT 7

CONNACHT try-scorer: penalty try