There was a real carnival atmosphere in the ground with around 1,000 French supporters resplendent in red and yellow adding to the anticipation of the crowd of 16,084.  The referee was Alain Rolland, the Irish referee with a French father, and one of the world’s most respected officials.  Incidentally when he won his first Irish cap at scrumhalf his out-half was a certain Brian Smith.

From the Irish kick off the French visitors were immediately on the attack. Following a ruck there was an exchange of kicks between Mike Catt and Percy Montgomery.  We were to win the resultant line out.  It was this feature of our play that was to give us the platform for the win.  Bob Casey and Nick Kennedy did sterling work in ensuring that we won all our line outs and stole around half a dozen from the opposition.  In the scrums the French pack seemed to have the advantage but we managed to hold them and they were unable to

With less than four minutes on the clock the opposition were 3-0 ahead through a Montgomery penalty following a high tackle.

Play then settled down to a battle between the imagination of the Irish and the dogged defending of the French.  Too many of our moves were thwarted when we were penalised for misdemeanours in rucks.  Irish were under real pressure near our own line but the saviour was Phil Murphy who pounced on a ball that came out of a 5-metre scrum on the French side. From the lineout the visitors were on the attack again and it was Sailosi Tagicakibau who came to the rescue when he intercepted a pass feet from our line. 

Then to the relief of the home supporters we were to win two penalties within 2 minutes as we went into the second quarter of the game.  Both were converted by Peter Hewat to give us the lead for the first time.

Five minutes later we handled on the ground again to give Montgomery an easy kick in front of the posts to level the scores again. 

Catt had developed a leg injury earlier in the half and it was inevitable that he would have to go off eventually. There was one touch of magic before he did so.  A chip from the right of the pitch saw three Irish attackers follow up.  A Frenchman got his hands to the ball but spoiled into the welcoming arms of Declan Danaher who went over for the try.  The difficult conversion was missed in what was to prove Hewat’s only error of the day.  As the conversion was being taken Catt went off to thunderous applause to be replaced by Shane Geraghty.

With four minutes of the half remaining USAP took a quick lineout on their right wing.  Although the ball did not seem to have gone five metres play was allowed to continue.  A chip across to the left wing found the arms of a grateful attacker who looked to have a clear run to the line.  Paul Hodgson charged over to catch the attacker and push him towards the touchline just as he dived over the line and touched down.  The referee went to the TMO and the replays clearly showed his knee touching the line just before he grounded the ball.  The referee awarded a penalty for an earlier offside.  Montgomery converted to make the score 11-9 as we went into then interval. 

I personally feel that this tackle was the turning point of the game.  If the try had been score the scores would have been level or perhaps we would have been two points down going into the dressing room. The psychological effect on both sides could have changed the ultimate result.

From the kick off Perpignan were on the attack. A knock on just on our 18-yard line (sometimes the soccer markings come in handy) relieved the pressure and Hewat was to find touch following the scrum.  One of our only weaknesses during the day was manifested at this scrum.  We were slow in getting the base away from the base of scrums, rucks and mauls and the opposition were to take advantage of this.  It was only our magnificent defence that stopped them from punishing us further.

Twelve minutes into the half our pressure forced the defence to hold on to the ball on the ground and Hewat’s third penalty give us some breathing space. The visitors then made three replacements including Perry Freshwater who was booed on to the ground.

Three minutes later another penalty took the gap beyond one score at 17-9.  Chris Cusiter, who had served his side well, almost pulled of a shock try against the run of play.  He charged down a clearance kick and chased it over the line. At Reading the in-goal area is very short so he was unable to get the ball before it went out of play.

With 20 minutes left Hewat added a fifth penalty to seemingly put the game beyond the Catalans’ reach.  Although they continued to press particularly within the last five minutes we were happy to watch the clock run down taking their chances with it.  Their frustrating day was compounded in injury time when Stefon Armitage tackled Vaki, their Tongan flanker into touch.  There was nothing wrong with the tackle but Vaki punched Steffon and both the touch judge and referee agreed that a red card and penalty were his just deserts.  Captain Bob grabbed the ball and booted the penalty into touch bringing the final whistle and the celebrations could begin.

TV Man of the Match was Peter Hewat, not only for his fifteen points but also for his pinpoint accuracy in kicking from hand that won us so much territory.

Who would have imagined at the beginning of the season that the two English representatives in the Heineken Cup semis would be London Irish and Saracens?  Especially as pundits were predicting that none of the Guinness Premiership teams would progress this weekend.  Roll on 26^th April when we take on the winners of this afternoon’s Toulouse v Cardiff game at Twickenham, six years and six days after our finest hour in that arena.

Billy Hamilton