RUGBY:Munster duly followed Leinster into the quarter-finals of the Heineken European Cup, but, on a sun-kissed afternoon under the snow-peaked Swiss Alps, they contrived to make desperately heavy weather of it. Their 30-27 win over Bourgoin in Geneva will rank as possibly the most madcap, frenetic and fluctuating encounter they've had in the competition.

Entering the death throes of the game, it was still possible for Munster to end up with either four or five points. In normal circumstances, Munster and their travelling support of about 7,000 in the 16,255 attendance would have been aggrieved at coming up literally just short of the fourth try and bonus point which would have given them an invaluable, four-point buffer before Leicester come calling next Saturday in one of those last-day, Anglo-Irish epics that Thomond Park specialises in. But these weren't normal circumstances, and it wasn't the relative warmth that had supporters and players alike wiping their brows at the end.

So, despite winning five from five in Pool Two, Munster's lead over Leicester has been trimmed to three points and they require another win to top the group and secure a home quarter-final. Leicester, the two-time champions, probably need a win to survive, and if the sides finish level in the table, it will come down to their head-to-head meetings. Munster took four points to Leicester's one in Welford Road when they scored two tries to one in their 21-19 win.

Thus, were Leicester to end Munster's 26-match winning run in Thomond Park, they would also need to deny Munster a bonus point in defeat to top the pool. Were Munster to pick up a bonus point it would come down to the tally of tries in the two meetings. If Leicester outscore Munster by a try, they would only need to win by two points or more, as they've scored more tries in the group.

No doubt this one will go down to the very last minute.

For the time being, Munster could at least bask in the relative glory of reaching the knock-out stages for the ninth year in a row, and in the process extend their unbeaten run in the competition to a record 13 matches. Also, as Declan Kidney noted, they recorded three away wins out of three in one pool campaign for the first time.

When Ronan O'Gara played down the failure to obtain a bonus point, and maintained that "I didn't think we were going to lose the game at any stage", he didn't reflect the agitation in the Swiss air around Stade de Geneve yesterday. Superb though some of their running lines, passing and off-loading were, if Leinster had played like this it would have been described as kamikaze rugby.

"We don't make things easy for ourselves, do we?" he admitted. "We're trying to develop our game in terms of a 15-man game, and at times it looked good, and at times it looked terrible. There was some suicidal passes going on out there, and I don't know where that came from."

Frankie Sheahan echoed a telling point made by Kidney, O'Gara and Marcus Horan when he pointed out that, unlike the previous miracles on the last Saturday of pool action against Gloucester and Sale, Leicester were coming to Limerick in need of a win outright rather than containing the margin of defeat if it came to it. Kidney described it as "the full Monty".

"The crowd aren't going to win it for us," said Sheahan. "They're a team of internationals, they're going to come over and give it socks, and there's going to be no miracles. There's only going to be hard work."

Never before have two Irish provinces secured their place in the last eight (Biarritz and Llanelli are the only other sides definitely through) with a round to spare.

Munster and Leinster now know that victories next weekend in their Anglo-Irish climaxes to pools four and two will ensure them home advantage in the quarter-finals. Quite where these games might be played will in part depend on which opponents they draw in the last eight.

As for Leinster, you'd want to be strangely removed from the sheer thrills and skills of another six-try rout at Donnybrook on Saturday not to have enjoyed them putting Edinburgh to the sword by 49-10.

It was further evidence of their good form: one defeat, and that in Thomond Park, in their last nine games.

But they will not convince their critics that they are more than flat-track bullies until they survive the fervour of Gloucester and their famed Shed in Kingsholm next Friday.

It would have been nice to see one of the deserving forwards honoured as man of the match, but Sky's understandable adoration of Felipe Contepomi decreed otherwise. It was almost encouraging to see the Puma genius take an early whack and come back for more contact, not to mention the rather extravagant endgame showboating - even by his standards. He also chipped in with 24 points, and then put an accurate spin on the importance of securing a home quarter-final.

"We need to get a home quarter-final, and so not to play an away quarter-final. It would make a huge difference to play a French team, particularly in their ground. Perhaps it wouldn't be our ground, but at least it wouldn't be their ground."

Contepomi believes Leinster are playing some good rugby, but still need to find consistency and fine-tune what he calls the details of their game, and that they will have to play better than they did at this point last season when they beat Bath at The Rec 35-23.

"I've never won in Kingsholm," admitted the ex-Bristol outhalf wistfully. "It's an intimidating place, but it's also a place you would like to go and play because Gloucester are one of the teams in the Premiership that play running rugby, so I think it could be a good game. So that's a threat, but also it could benefit us. It will be a big mental challenge." Whatever else, the next week won't be dull.