Leinster reach Heineken Cup final

Leinster reached their first ever Heineken Cup final after producing one of the outstanding performances in the competition's history in their 25-6 victory over Munster.

Gordon D'Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald and man of the match Brian O'Driscoll scored the tries in front of a record crowd of 82,208 at Croke Park.

But Leinster's victory was founded on a ferocious defensive performance to which Munster - the odds-on favourites, defending European champions and Magners League champions - had no answer.

Leinster, who had lost their last three Heineken Cup semi-finals, will head to Murrayfield on May 23 to face either the Cardiff Blues or Leicester.

Munster were hot favourites but Leinster were fired by thoughts of revenge. They were outplayed by Munster at the same stage of the competition three years ago and collapsed to a 30-6 defeat. But Leinster have developed a steeliness since 2006. The proved it in a bruising 6-5 quarter-final victory at Harlequins and proved it again here.

Leinster refused to be cowed by the size of the occasion or the quality of the opposition. Munster had scored 15 tries in their previous three European games, here they scored none.