Heineken Cup

Munster were so good against Northampton in the Heineken Cup this evening that Joey Barton felt moved to dish out some effusive praise on his Twitter page.

It may have been an effort to win back the hearts of all the Irish people he upset with some controversial comments about plastic paddies a while back, but Joey was certainly impressed, posting the following tweets (with a Nietzsche quote thrown in the middle for good measure) towards the end of the game.

Barton had plenty of reasons to be impressed as the two-time Heineken Cup champions had their way with the Saints on their own turf.

Simon Zebo crossed for a hat-trick of tries as Munster put 51 points on last year’s Heineken Cup finalists and delivered a performance of the like not seen from the province in a few years. It was enough to make them top seeds for the quarter-finals and after a performance like this, no team left in the competition will want to visit Thomond Park.

Earlier in the day, Leinster wrapped up their home quarter-final as expected with a 25-3 victory over Montpellier at the RDS, with Sean O’Brien, Rob Kearney and Cian Healy all crossing for five pointers.

Healy retired through injury in the second half, but it is not expected to threaten his participation in the Six Nations.

Ulster failed to make it three Irish provinces with a home draw as they fell to a four-point defeat to Clermont and depending on results tomorrow, they could face the daunting task of trying to overturn Munster at Thomond Park in the quarter-finals.

Despite that setback, it’s been some weekend for Irish rugby, especially considering Connacht’s magnificent achievement in beating Harlequins for their first ever Heineken Cup victory last night.