Leinster Advance To Quarterfinals After Twickenham Draw

Heineken Cup: London Irish 11 Leinster 11

Johnny Sexton dramatically drop kicked London Irish out of the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup moments after the English Premiership side had thought they had done enough to book a ticket into the big time.

The Exiles were faced with a mountain to climb to clinch qualification for the quarter-finals following their disappointing defeat at Llanelli against the Scarlets the previous week.

They needed a bonus point victory, with Leinster getting nothing out of the game, to top the Pool and reach the last eight, or they had to win and score at least one try to oust Northampton Saints from the final runners-up spot in the knock-out phase.

Even though they trailed for much of the game, Bob Casey's men dug deep to conjure up a try in the 65th minute to get on level terms and then finally hit the front after 76 minutes.

At that stage all they had to do was hang on for four minutes to take their place ahead of English rivals Northampton in the last eight. But no sooner had the champions gone behind than they headed downfield and set up Sexton for a 35-yard drop goal that leveled the scores and broke the hearts of the Exiles' fans in the 37,323-strong crowd at Twickenham Stadium.

Having beaten the reigning champions at the RDS in the first round of Pool matches they had nothing to fear, yet found themselves trailing to a Johnny Sexton penalty after half-an-hour.

The Leinster and Ireland outside half hit the mark with his first attempt after only five minutes and then hit the left hand upright with his second long range attempt after 30 minutes.

As his kick came back off the post, so Topsy Ojo launched a great counter attack to finally provide the home fans with something to shout about. They were on their feet a few minutes later when Chris Malone made up for his earlier miss by leveling the scores from 25 yards out after the Leinster backs were caught offside.

Leinster hit back with a great handling move down the left that ended with Gordon D'Arcy diving over, but referee Nigel Adams ruled it out for a forward pass. It didn't matter, though, because at the scrum five yards out from the home line, the Dubliners made a complete mess of the scrum and replacement scrum half Peter Richards was caught in possession.

Jamie Heaslip latched onto the loose ball and almost reached the line, but then Nathan Hines sent a scoring pass out to left wing Isa Nacewa to allow him to dive in unopposed for the first try of the game.

The second half got off to an explosive start with Leinster's new Irish prop Cain Healy being sent to the sin-bin for an attack on home skipper Bob Casey. The Exiles didn't make the most of their advantage and, to make matters worse, Malone was wide again from a good position seven minutes after the restart.

Leinster continued to attack through their midfield aces D'Arcy and Brian O'Driscoll, but neither side was able to break the second-half stalemate.

Then a strong burst by Seilala Mapusua into the Leinster 22, carried on by No. 8 Chris Hala'ufia, gave Malone the chance to dart through a gap to cross for a vital try from five yards out. That leveled the scores, but the conversion was needed to put his side on course for a quarter-final spot.

The kick was half-way out on the right and it struck the right hand upright and stayed out. That left the game poised on a knife-edge and the Exiles' hopes hanging by a thread with 15 minutes left to play.

The Irish forwards worked their way to within 10 metres of the Leinster line once again, but Malone declined the drop shot and held his nerve to stroke over the 76th minute penalty to take the lead. Then came the drop goal that quickly brought an end to the dream of a place in the knock-out stage.