Julien Dupuy scored a late try to give Leicester a 20-15 victory over Bath on Saturday to set up a Heineken Cup semi-final with Cardiff Blues, who earlier beat Toulouse 9-6 at the Milliennum Stadium.
With two old English rivals locked at 15-15 at the Walkers Stadium and everyone expecting a drop-goal attempt, the French replacement scrumhalf instead broke through the Bath defense to score a superb try for Leicester.
Leicester, twice winners, and Bath, who lifted the trophy in 1998, battered each other to a standstill in a game that started as a tight battle, but ended like a Sevens match.
PHOTO: AP
Sam Vesty, a late replacement at fly-half after Toby Flood was injured in the warm-up, had a great game, landing all five of his penalty attempts.
Bath were always in the game, scoring tries through Shaun Berne and Joe Maddock, but Butch James was not so accurate with his goal kicking and paid a heavy price.
Cardiff Blues gained revenge for defeat by Toulouse at the same stage last season as New Zealander Ben Blair kicked three penalties in a defense-dominated game.
Toulouse were the only French team left in the tournament and their defeat means France will not have a semi-finalist for only the second time in the 14-year history of Europe’s premier club competition.
It also means that England will gain an extra representative in next year’s competition at France’s expense.
Toulouse hammered Cardiff 41-17 in last season’s last eight en route to the final, but they were unable to release their dangerous backs in Saturday’s physical battle.
Frederic Michalak and David Skrela kicked a penalty apiece for Toulouse, who had the better of the first half, but trailed 6-3 at the break.
They piled on the pressure in the closing stages, but Cardiff defended their line to hold out.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS