Munster 37-32 Stade Français

HEINEKEN CUP QUARTER-FINAL Munster (24) 37 Tries: Payne, Henderson, Mullins, Horan Con: O'Gara 4 Pen: O'Gara 3 Stade Francais (10) 32 Try: Corleto, Liebenberg, Moni Pens: Dominguez Cons: Dominguez 3 Dg: Dominguez Att: 12,500

Munster booked a Heineken Cup semi-final spot at Lansdowne Road, with a nervous victory over Stade Francais in Limerick.

Tries by Shaun Payne, Rob Henderson, Mike Mullins and Marcus Horan and 17 points from the boot of Ronan O'Gara gave them a deserved victory.

Stade replied with tries from Ignacio Corleto, Brian Liebenberg, Christophe Moni and Thomas Lombard.

Stade fly-half Diego Dominguez weighed in with 12 points for the visitors.

Munster will now face the winners of Sunday's tie between Wasps and Gloucester.

The opening half was frenetic with four tries and 34 points on offer, as the home side cruised into a 24-10 lead.

In a blistering opening Munster surged 17 points ahead, when left-wing Payne ran in after only 90 seconds and Henderson followed suit to leave Stade shell-shocked.

O'Gara added five points with the boot before Stade finally opted to join in the try-fest, but when Corleto crossed wide out it was certainly worth the wait.

Dominguez converted, but within three minutes Munster had grabbed their third, when Mullins dived in at the corner.

"At times I felt we were a bit cumbersome... our creativity was also short of our normal standards and I really think we had a lucky escape Munster's Ronan O'Gara More Munster reaction

O'Gara was again accurate with the extras, but Dominguez had the final word of the half when his drop goal floated through the posts.

With the wind in their favour, the French struck first on the resumption when Liebenberg crashed over for a converted try.

To their credit, Munster responded immediately with a brilliant solo effort from loose-head Horan who side-stepped into space and outpaced the Stade defence from 30 metres.

Munster, though, were beginning to tire and with 10 minutes remaining they allowed replacement Moni to crash over.

O'Gara hammered in the final nails to Stade's coffin with two penalties as the clock ran down with Lombard scoring a consolation try after eight minutes of injury time.

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Munster: Cullen; Kelly; Mullins, Henderson, Payne; O'Gara, Stringer; Horan, F. Sheahan, J. Hayes, O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Williams, Wallace, Foley.
Replacements: Flannery, McIlwham, Pusey, S. Keogh, Reddan, Holland, Horgan.

Stade Français: Corleto; Lombard; Hernandez, Liebenberg, Dominici; Dominguez, Mahe; Marconnet, August, Lemoine, Auradou, James, Tabacco, Martin, Rabadan.
Replacements: Blin, De Villiers, Marchois, Moni, Poulain, Skrela, Vass.

Referee: Nigel Williams (Wales).